For sheer abundance and variety of roadside wildflowers, July and August are probably the best months of the year in my part of Wisconsin.
Here's a sampling of flowers (and a few other things) I've seen on my August rides....
Cloudy Sunday Evening Ride
Hairy vetch, a member of the pea family that deserves a prettier name:
A field of Canada goldenrod:
Delicate flowering spurge:
Hare's-foot clover going to seed:
American Lotus growing on a nearly-hidden backroad lake:
On that same backroad I often spot feathers lying on the ground:
Glowing thistle brightening a cloudy day:
Alien-looking horsemint blooming at the edge of the woods:
A favourite barn under grey skies:
Deer standing in a twilit shade (I passed this deer four times trying to get a good photo, but the light was too poor):
A cheery woodland sunflower shining above dark leaves:
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Cloudy Morning Ride to Work
I've been trying to ride to work once a week, as weather permits. Though I don't usually stop for photos, on this particular morning the temptation was too much.
First there was a field of chicory mixed with red clover:
The last two miles of my route to work are along a river trail, where wildflowers sometimes* grow with abandon. In the space of a mile I saw baby coneflowers:
And hoary alyssum:
Large patches of Butter-and-eggs, or yellow toadflax, in the grass beside the trail:
And fleabane:
Ragweed (bane of my existence and the cause of many a sneeze):
And minuscule cinquefoil:
A regal spiderwort stood aloof from the other flowers:
Bright birdsfoot trefoil made spots of gold:
Spotted knapweed waved dainty lavender petals:
Everybody knows the next one, right? I rode past clouds of it nodding in the breeze:
Goldenrod grew on the river side of the trail:
And prairie onion, a new-to-me flower:
A glorious jumble of orange milkweed and late-blooming crown vetch:
At the water's edge, gorgeous swathes of purple loosestrife:
*It's a good thing I photographed the trailside flowers when I did - the next week the city mowers came along and cut them all down. Grrr.
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We interrupt this flower-laden post for a brief photo of Lunch from the Garden:
Isn't summer delightful?
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Sunny Morning Ride to Work
No flower photos on this day (thanks to those darn mowers), but I did see twin fawns next to the trail:
View of the river:
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Partly Cloudy Saturday Evening Ride
This ride was made memorable by the most painful insect bite I've ever received. I don't know what bit me, but it felt very like a jellyfish sting I once got. The pain persisted through the ride and into the night, but (thank God) was gone when I woke up the next morning.
Photos were few that evening, but here's the best of them:
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Sunday Late-Afternoon Ride
The next day's ride was much better - no insect bites, and plenty of flowers.
Blue vervain growing next to a marsh:
Joe-Pye weed nearby:
Swallows have been gathering for weeks now. I passed a group of them on a wire, with a single mourning dove in their midst:
Summer-heavy trees lining a favourite bend in the road:
Wild sunflowers and goldenrod supporting a rustic fence:
It's been a good year for whorled milkweed, the tiniest of the milkweed species. Here's some I found growing at the edge of a field:
Nearby were some small flowers (fleabane, I think) going beautifully to seed:
And salsify, looking magical and ready to fly:
Around the corner, a huge patch of Pennsylvania smartweed grew in a damp spot:
While wild cucumber tried to take over the road:
A few miles later, I passed a small patch of stiff goldenrod (much rarer around here than the ubiquitous Canada goldenrod seen above):
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Sunny Saturday Afternoon Ride
This short ride happened yesterday, and yielded only one photo - a coneflower surrounded by some rather interesting buds:
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August has been mostly cloudy this year, with plenty of rain - in some places, more rain than we could well handle. I wish we could share the surplus water with our friends in the dry west and northwest.
Has your August been cloudy or sunny? Rainy or dry?
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