Virginia A. Spiegel

Harvest

I thought I wouldn’t have any hedgeapples this year as I could only see a couple in the tree.  But the wind blew and down they came. They do seem to be like apples, bearing bigger crops in alternate years.

Karen Stiehl Osborn put her hedgeapples to good use in painting. She also cut a hedgeapple in half and made a print:

Great ideas, Karen!  I mainly collect them for my Dad who believes they keep the spiders out of his shop.

Jim Mason of the Great Plains Nature Center has a web page with information about hedgeapples, a.k.a. osage orange.

Haiku count since July 14:  475 (down with the flu last week).

I wrapped up the two-year run of The Garbage Day Project last week, but all the photos (both beautiful and crazy) will remain up for your inspiration. I will be posting garbage day photos here on Inspiration Tuesday periodically.

Survivor

I love a lot of the old-fashioned flowers – bachelor buttons, peonies and, yes, zinnas.  I probably wouldn’t have given this flower a second look in the great blossoming glut of summer.  But this flower withstood our first, albeit brief, snow showers of the season and is still going strong.

Haiku count since July 14: 435

Of course, there’s a new post in The Garbage Day Project.

If you want news as it happens, follow me at Twitter page here.

Autumn is the time for the glory of the ornamental grasses.  They are such slow starters and then in the Fall when everything else has run out of gas, they send out huge or small plumes or are just gorgeous like like this Miscanthus sinensis ‘Strictus.’ This is sometimes called porcupine grass because the blades are very stiff and upright. There is another similar grass, Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebrinus” or zebra grass, that is much softer and weeping. They are both quite tall.  I have both and they absolutely glow when the sun hits them in the morning. 

Haiku count since July 14: 215

Check out what’s new today on the garbage beat on the The Garbage Day Project.