Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Blues of Geese & Vervain

Here's a cluster of BLUE vervain that was blooming in our road ditch last summer. There's a couple of little bees in the photo and a green beetle bug on one of the top stems.......I don't know if you can see them.


The entry for vervain in a tallgrass prairie wildflower book I have states: "Some native Americans gathered the seeds, which they roasted and then ground into a flour or meal. The Omaha prepared a tea from the leaves. The Teton Dakota used this beverage as a remedy for stomach aches." I always wish I had the nerve to try these wild plant remedies.......


Yesterday morning, I emerged from the barn after scraping cow manure, and was heading to the house when a honking sound from up above caught my ear. Three geese were flying low over our buildings, heading in a northerly direction. Their long necks were light-colored, unlike the Canada geese we commonly see, whose necks are black. I dug out my bird book and looked up other types of geese. Possibly the threesome were "Blue Geese". Despite what they may or may not be......to me they signified SPRING!" Perhaps, "once in a BLUE moon", one will see BLUE Geese......who knows!


The sun had some honest warmth to it yesterday, so maybe spring truly is about to settle into our area. And, hopefully, into your area, too!!!



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll take any sign of spring that you throw my way!!!

And if you'd come melt the last of our snow, so much the better!

Mary Connealy said...

I saw geese, a whole lot of them, Saturday. I gave me hope because I'd begun to believe that this is the year spring would never come.

We've having calves right now. Three born yesterday. We have a cow calf herd now that the milk cows are gone.
120 head, mainly angus. I went out with my husband last night to ride around the stalk field checking for babies. But the frost is getting ready to go out, my husband said, so he won't be able to take the pick-up out there after yesterday, we were sliding around so bad we shouldn't have been out there even then.

Sherry said...

Nice photo Jeannelle. I love the native plants that grow here. We have vervain of course, but I expecially love the spiderwort. Also the wild sage which I harvest. Parker loves to pick a few wildflowers and put them in a vase for me as a surprise some days. They are not as showy as the hybrids but they are pretty none the less. I also saw your bee balm further down. We have wild bee balm but its a light lavender, never red alas. Red is not a color we see much here naturally.

Country Girl said...

Jeannelle, I love what you did with this photo. Like a feathered burn-out with a border around it. Really nice.

Jeannelle said...

Kacey,

Thanks always for visiting! I haven't figured out what state you live in.....is it down south somewhere?

Mary,

Thanks, also, for stopping by. You sound very busy with calving!

Sherry,

I like spiderwort, too! You'll have to post a photo of wild sage for me, or I'll look it up in my book. The bee balm in the photo was a purchased plant. We also have the lavendar "horsemint" bee balm growing wild out in a little prairie patch on our farm. That's very nice to get a gift of wildflowers from your husband. Thanks for dropping by!

Countrygirl,

Thank you for visiting and for the nice words about the photo. I really don't know what a feathered burnout is, though.....I just fiddled with it until I liked the way it looked!