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Photos: Coles County Community Garden
Aug. 3rd, 2025 02:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThese pictures show the Coles County Community Garden on Saturday, August 2. (Begin with Part 1: Right Side, Part 2: Left Side.)
( Walk with me ... )
( Walk with me ... )
ysabetwordsmith
Buddha statue and surrounding garden.
Jul. 6th, 2025 05:28 amfull_metal_oxTaken on 28 May 2024 at 21:00 US Eastern Daylight Time:
(Warning for flashing lights and shaky camera.)
( Cut. )
(Not included: the sound of passing sirens.)
Taken on 9 June 2024 at 07:21 US Eastern Daylight Time:
Taken on 27 June 2025 at 19:46 US Eastern Daylight Time:
Taken on 27 June 2025 at 19:47 US Eastern Daylight Time:
Taken on 2 July 2025 at 19:43 US Eastern Daylight Time:
This gradually took shape across the parking lot from a local Asian fusion restaurant over 2024; between recovering from Hurricane Ian and the COVID quarantine, changing hands, and changing formats (from the mid-century Cantonese-American the original owners had served for forty years to a pan-Asian combination of sushi, ramen, and Chinese), they’d spent the previous couple years uneasily gaining their bearings.
The garden’s proximity to the street, along with the lack of any obvious receptacle for offerings, makes it clear that this is a more ornamental than devotional site. (A Web search indicates the presence of a local Buddhist temple, but the address is a private residence, and home worship services are for who they’re for, which does not include curiosity-gawking spiritual tourists.)
My guess is that the white-flowering shrubs are Star Jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), aka Confederate Jasmine, Chinese Star Jessamine, and Trader’s Compass, native to warm regions in South and East Asia, and widely planted in the Southeastern U.S. The flowers’ heady indolic fragrance is prized in perfumery, but I’m afraid I haven’t the right sensory range to enjoy them.
(Warning for flashing lights and shaky camera.)
( Cut. )
(Not included: the sound of passing sirens.)
Taken on 9 June 2024 at 07:21 US Eastern Daylight Time:
Taken on 27 June 2025 at 19:46 US Eastern Daylight Time:
Taken on 27 June 2025 at 19:47 US Eastern Daylight Time:
Taken on 2 July 2025 at 19:43 US Eastern Daylight Time:
This gradually took shape across the parking lot from a local Asian fusion restaurant over 2024; between recovering from Hurricane Ian and the COVID quarantine, changing hands, and changing formats (from the mid-century Cantonese-American the original owners had served for forty years to a pan-Asian combination of sushi, ramen, and Chinese), they’d spent the previous couple years uneasily gaining their bearings.
The garden’s proximity to the street, along with the lack of any obvious receptacle for offerings, makes it clear that this is a more ornamental than devotional site. (A Web search indicates the presence of a local Buddhist temple, but the address is a private residence, and home worship services are for who they’re for, which does not include curiosity-gawking spiritual tourists.)
My guess is that the white-flowering shrubs are Star Jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), aka Confederate Jasmine, Chinese Star Jessamine, and Trader’s Compass, native to warm regions in South and East Asia, and widely planted in the Southeastern U.S. The flowers’ heady indolic fragrance is prized in perfumery, but I’m afraid I haven’t the right sensory range to enjoy them.
Knock Out Honey Bees
Jun. 15th, 2025 11:57 amblackcatofmiseryMy mom's garden has a vigorous knock out rosebush just beside it, and various bees adore it. Although I'm severely allergic to bites and stings, I will still follow honey and bumble bees; they're too busy to care about me.
Fun fact about me: I cannot smell typical roses. Knockouts are the only roses I can smell.
( Photos beneath the cut. )
Fun fact about me: I cannot smell typical roses. Knockouts are the only roses I can smell.
( Photos beneath the cut. )
Tags:
Some Spring Flowers
Apr. 2nd, 2025 03:57 pmempty_photos Went for a very windy morning walk today and saw some flowers, i cant remember what these are called if anyone knows please let me know! I also got to see some crocus' which was super nice cause when i see them i know its going to be spring.
full_metal_oxTaken on 17 April 2017 at 17:00 US Eastern Daylight Savings Time in Dayton, Ohio, US:
This is a snapshot, taken some years earlier, from the place I left in May of 2023. Cherry blossoms are relatively uncommon in Dayton, but flowering crabapples, in red, mauve, pink, and white, are a signature of spring—and this specimen, fallen face down onto the concrete sidewalk, is a perfectly serviceable representation of the sad beauty of transience. The flower is long since gone, of course; so is the tree that bore it, sawn down in the gentrification project when the property changed hands at just about the beginning of COVID quarantine; so is the irascible albino squirrel who claimed it as territory (you don’t seriously think that little expletive deleted deigned to hold still for a photo.) And now, in the Rust Belt desertion and inexorable southward demographic gravitational suck, I’m gone from the premises too.
(I never bothered to photograph much of the surroundings of my native and near-lifelong Dayton: first because I didn’t own a camera until 2010, and didn’t figure out how to host the images until the mid-to-late teens, and didn’t own a home computer of any sort until 2020, and above all because I never anticipated leaving until it was too late.)
This is a snapshot, taken some years earlier, from the place I left in May of 2023. Cherry blossoms are relatively uncommon in Dayton, but flowering crabapples, in red, mauve, pink, and white, are a signature of spring—and this specimen, fallen face down onto the concrete sidewalk, is a perfectly serviceable representation of the sad beauty of transience. The flower is long since gone, of course; so is the tree that bore it, sawn down in the gentrification project when the property changed hands at just about the beginning of COVID quarantine; so is the irascible albino squirrel who claimed it as territory (you don’t seriously think that little expletive deleted deigned to hold still for a photo.) And now, in the Rust Belt desertion and inexorable southward demographic gravitational suck, I’m gone from the premises too.
(I never bothered to photograph much of the surroundings of my native and near-lifelong Dayton: first because I didn’t own a camera until 2010, and didn’t figure out how to host the images until the mid-to-late teens, and didn’t own a home computer of any sort until 2020, and above all because I never anticipated leaving until it was too late.)
Sharing Some Photos
Mar. 21st, 2025 11:28 amempty_photos haven't posted to this group yet! but i wanted to share some photos ive taken of my local flora over the years
the species are as listed: spotted touch me-not, common blackberry, goldenrod spp. unknown lilly, common pear (iirc). I hope this is a fine first post here.
edit 3/22: i have tried a new format to share these images so hopefully they work this time apologies. and also thank you all for liking them!
the species are as listed: spotted touch me-not, common blackberry, goldenrod spp. unknown lilly, common pear (iirc). I hope this is a fine first post here.
edit 3/22: i have tried a new format to share these images so hopefully they work this time apologies. and also thank you all for liking them!
Photos: New Rocks
Mar. 15th, 2025 09:28 pmysabetwordsmithToday I planted most of my new rocks! \o/ I'm waiting to sink the pink mica rock until I get a second one to point the other direction along the road, to catch headlights from both ways.
( Walk with me ... )
( Walk with me ... )
Photos: Savanna and Prairie Garden
Mar. 12th, 2025 11:52 pmysabetwordsmithContinuing the photo tour of the yard, most of these are from the savanna and prairie garden.
See all of today's photography posts:
Photos: House Yard and South Lot
Photos: Savanna and Prairie Garden
Photos: Back Toward the House
Photos: Garden Shed
( Walk with me ... )
See all of today's photography posts:
Photos: House Yard and South Lot
Photos: Savanna and Prairie Garden
Photos: Back Toward the House
Photos: Garden Shed
( Walk with me ... )
full_metal_oxStrelitzia reginae in bloom in a bedding of white seashells, with low-growing palms and (agave?) also visible in the flower bed, taken on 18 August 2023 at 15:43 US Eastern Daylight Savings Time:
The mature male specimen of Homo sapiens var. euroamericanus was a passerby and did not give his express consent, but the color of his T-shirt coincided so perfectly with the blue nectary petals of the flower that I decided to keep him; the measure I took to respect his privacy somehow completes the composition.)
The mature male specimen of Homo sapiens var. euroamericanus was a passerby and did not give his express consent, but the color of his T-shirt coincided so perfectly with the blue nectary petals of the flower that I decided to keep him; the measure I took to respect his privacy somehow completes the composition.)
Photos: House Yard and South Lot
Mar. 3rd, 2025 03:08 amysabetwordsmithThese pictures are from Sunday, but it's after midnight so the timestamp will say Monday. See the savanna and house yard.
( Walk with me ... )
( Walk with me ... )
Photos: House Yard
Nov. 2nd, 2024 10:29 pmysabetwordsmithToday I took some pictures around the yard. These are images from the house yard.
( Walk with me ... )
( Walk with me ... )
ysabetwordsmithToday we went out to the lake. These pictures primarily show the pollinator gardens around the parking lot and the approach to the lake paths.
( Walk with me ... )
( Walk with me ... )
Glad Midsommar!
Jun. 21st, 2024 07:51 pmturloughMidsummer's Eve is the second most celebrated holiday here in Sweden and like Christmas a lot of the celebration centres around food and drink, but for Midsummer flowers are also a large part. Particularly wild flowers. May and June are the big months for wild flowers here and all the photos I posted below are just some of all the wild flowers I saw on my walk this morning.
Click to enlarge:
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
( more flowers... )
Click to enlarge:
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
( more flowers... )
Photos: Cicadas
May. 14th, 2024 11:36 pmysabetwordsmithCicadas are hatching! I've seen a few hatch earlier, but this morning after the rain there are lots of them. The biggest concentration is around the forest garden and edges of the patio. :D These are red-eyed cicadas, technically periodical cicadas. Their carapaces are almost hard, their wings fully extended but still too soft to fly. It's a feast for everything that eats insects. Humans can eat them too. (I'm not planning to try that.) Usually what we get here are various types of the larger green cicadas, like the dog-day cicadas.
For maximum birdwatching benefits, keep an eye out on mornings after a rain. Once the nymphs shed their shells, they are soft and vulnerable. Many birds eagerly feast on them.
See also the poem "The Flying Jewels of Spring."
( Read more... )
For maximum birdwatching benefits, keep an eye out on mornings after a rain. Once the nymphs shed their shells, they are soft and vulnerable. Many birds eagerly feast on them.
See also the poem "The Flying Jewels of Spring."
( Read more... )
An American lady
May. 12th, 2024 11:37 amblackcatofmiseryI love spring, because garden centers open, and that means pollinators. I saw a butterfly going about in a greenhouse and finally tracked it down—taking a picture every couple of seconds, so I looked like a creep, I'm sure—on a hanging planter. I believe it's an American lady (Vanessa virginiensis), judging by the two eyespots and bit of pink.
( Photos beneath the cut. )
( Photos beneath the cut. )
