The local flora, and Rita Cheryl

Immediately behind my place of work is a sizeable field.  This spring it's been left fallow for longer than usual, and that's allowed for some very lovely weeds to grow.  This is just a glimpse of what it's like.

In By the Shores of Silver Lake Laura Ingalls Wilder described the prairie surrounding her in great detail, noting that in the fall the various clumps of grass would turn this color or that color.  I wonder if this field is anything like that?  Now granted, it is late spring rather than autumn, and Laura was on a huge prairie while I'm standing in maybe an acre of land, but I still wonder if their beauty can compare.  But either way there's all sorts of stuff to see.  I traipsed out here hoping to get some good doll pictures, but I got distracted by all the weeds.  The very first one I saw was this one, a large colony of goat's beard.

Goat's beard is NOT to be confused with goatheads.  One is a weed that looks a lot like a giant dandelion, and the other grew straight from the belly of Lucifer.  No joke, some of the blossoms on this goat's beard are folded up, and if allowed to continue growing they'll spread out like the head of a dandelion gone to seed.  For some strange reason, when I was very little I tried to eat the seeds of a goat's beard, much to my mother's dismay.  I never will understand why I tried such a stunt, since I knew dandelion seeds weren't fit for eating, and in my child's eyes goat's beard was just a big dandelion.  Indeed, the two are closely related, both have edible roots, and I think they both fall under the "damned yellow composite" category as well.

The next couple of pictures will be a bit blurry, because it's a bit windy today.  Ah, windy and in the low seventies...I wouldn't cry if the whole summer was like this!  Anyway, these soft yellow flowers often found their way into my childhood bouquets.  I have no idea what they are, but I've always liked them.  Usually the blossoms are buttery yellow or light orange, but sometimes they're also pink.

This sucker came up to about my hip.  It's a wild onion gone to seed, and the field is full of them.  Want a little spice to go with your goat's-beard-root-and-dandelion-root salad?  Add a few of these puppies.

Then there's this...I have no idea what this stuff is, but it's obviously purple.  Grandma would've called it wild heather, but it doesn't smell like heather.  It looks a lot like hairy vetch to me.  If this is the case then it's good to have this in your fallow field, as it's a good nitrogen fixer.  Heck, maybe this stuff was planted specifically for that purpose; farmers do do that.

Of course all that matters naught to Rita Cheryl.  By now she was getting impatient to have her picture taken.  I put her in a patch of hairy vetch.

Believe it or not, that vetch is holding Rita Cheryl up.  As I said earlier, the wind is blowing today, and usually when it's windy I can't get Rita Cheryl to stand (she's getting pretty floppy).  I will say though that despite being a Brooklyn girl my dolly has adjusted to country life!  As for me myself...well, I'd love to travel a bit and see the rest of the country (especially Yosemite National Park), but I wouldn't trade living in the boonies for the world.  To an outsider there's not much to do, but if you've lived here all your life then you know there are ways to entertain yourself.  Walking the fields is a good way to do that...provided you have good walking shoes and watch out for snakes.  Don't go in sandals, like I did.

Yours truly,
RagingMoon1987