Marsh Pea

I discovered a new (to me) wild flower this summer, called Marsh Pea (Lathyrus palustris).  It's a member of the bean family, so I don't know why it's called Marsh Pea.  At first, I was positive it was a Sweet Pea, even though it seemed odd for a cultivated plant to be growing so unfettered in a wild area.  Probably the person that named it thought so, too. 

They don't usually grow this straight.

A fly sits on the right, giving a sense of scale.

Here was my initial reaction to this Rorschach photograph...

• The flower buds look similar to the swollen seed pods of Wild Indigo.  

• The fully open flower looks like an orchid.

• The bright pink buds look like a fortune cookie or a clam shell.

Here's my revised reaction:  They look like Marsh Pea parts.
 

Colors range from pink to purple, in various saturations.

A nice background for Yarrow.

A gentle swoop.

And a little morning dew.  I think this might be my favorite native plant.

Making It Mine - Curvy Old Chair

I bought an old chair at a resale shop, thinking I would paint it, and definitely knowing I would recover the seat.

When I got it home and had a closer look, I decided it was too pretty to paint.  The curves are so dainty, and it is, indeed, a fragile chair.  The bottom of the seat said it was mahogany, which I think is too nice to paint, so I left the wood alone. 

But I did pull off the really, really old pale blue seat satin cover (along with extremely rusty staples), and replaced it with this modern floral.

It likes to sit near my little desk from a garage sale.  I think it likes the new knob I gave it.

A little something for the corner of the little desk.

A little bouquet from the yard.

The clock and vase are a couple of other thrift store finds.  I hadn't thought of it before, but everything in this corner was pre-owned, but now I've made them all mine.

Monday is Fun Day - Origami Boxes

Monday is the day we look at fun items I've collected from vintage or new sources.

I bought these Origami boxes at the same craft fair at which I bought my Duck Tape pens.  They were made by an adult, not one of the elementary school children.

The woman that made the boxes used this book.  I checked it out from the library, but the directions were too spartan for me.  Plus the author didn't mention what kind of paper she used, so the whole process became a large mystery.

These are the tops.

These are the bottoms.

And these are the insides.

I really want to make some of these, so I decided to look on YouTube for help.  I found a video of someone (not Tomoko Fuse) making this exact box.  Then I looked online for "origami paper" and found this exact set of paper at JoAnn Fabrics.  I even called the store, to see where they keep it - it's in the arts department with the watercolor paints, etc. 

With all of these mysteries solved, I've just added another project to my to-do list. 

Another Day, Another Prairie

Yesterday's walk was in a different prairie, and although it was only a few miles from last week's prairie, the native flowers and grasses were somewhat different.

The trails are narrow enough that you can't walk three abreast.  I like to walk behind, so the cobwebs are already broken.

Foxtail Barley

 

Foxtail Barley

Milkweed

Another clump, fully open.

Black-eyed Susan, playing peek-a-boo.

Black-eyed Susan, not quite fully open, with a furry-looking, one-dimensional center.

  Later in its life cycle, with the center grown into two layers.

A perfect specimen, full open, next to delicate Prairie Dropseed grass.

Red clover.  I used to eat this when I was young.  You pull off each individual purple segment, and the white part that is the "stem" is where all the sugar is.

Ox-eye Daisy and a little white bug.

I'm learning lots of flower, grass, and bird names, but I call all of these guys mushrooms.  I need to work on that.