Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Dew-Due Day















Finishing our taxes almost killed me, and the dog, too. I accidentally knocked a shoebox full of cancelled checks off my desk onto the Senior Wiener. He trembled for half an hour, but I knew he was OK when he sought comfort at the kitty litter box. At 17 he still gets into trouble.

So how appropriate that the big Due day was also a big Dew day. I took breaks from disheveling my office in search of our W-2's (which were found, ironically, in the Income Tax folder I'd already set up in the file cabinet) to photograph the moist landscape.

The first one is the Ratany (Krameria lanceolata), a sort of sprawling plant that makes seeds resembling those Medieval weapons that are balls with spikes all over them. You don't want to walk barefoot anywhere near this plant after it has finished flowering.

The things that look like petals are really colorful sepals, and those five smaller protrusions inside them are the true petals. Krameria is the only genus in the Krameriaceae family. Sort of a loner. Of course if you went around brandishing a bunch of maces you might be all by your lonesome too.


















The Prairie Verbena, also called Dakota Vervain, (Verbena bipinnatifida), is a popular butterfly nectar plant. The Pink Evening Primrose (Oenothera speciosa) is one of several primroses growing here. These are our treasures. Thankfully, not taxable.

















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