My Vacation, Part 9 of 9 -- Wednesday, July 29, 2009 and Wildflower Census

[lblanchard]

I surprised myself, and Roy, by being ready to take off at 9:00, after breakfasting on those odd Frisbee-like "cheese omelets" at the Hampton Inn. We did a quick driving tour of Millionaire's Row in Williamsport. But it was rainy and we were through with being on vacation, so we didn't stop to take any pictures.

We hustled home via Route 15, Route 80, the Northeast Extension, and the Schuylkill Expressway, returning to a closed-up smelling house and a demoralized cat. We unloaded the car. I installed the Kipling before doing the rest of my unpacking. We went to the PathMark to replenish perishables and buy bulky things while we still had a car. Roy finished his last roll of film in South Philly while I read the history of Eagles Mere I bought the previous day.

Dinner was chicken breast and gravy, boiled potatoes, a whole lot of steamed broccoli, and the last of the Bulleit bourbon we had purchased before the trip.

FINIS.

Appendix -- Wildflower census

(most of these are the kinds of alien, invasive thugs that stole over from the mother country and set up housekeeping in disturbed places such as roadsides, hedgerows, and railroad beds)

Hemerocallis fulva
Queen Anne's Lace
Chicory
Loosestrife
Crown vetch
Purple vetch
Yellow vetch
Yellow sweet clover
White sweet clover
St. John's wort
Yarrow
Common milkweed
Common teasel
Cutleaf teasel
Spotted jewel weed
Tall meadow rue
Black cohosh
Tansy
Oxeye Daisy
Vervain
Several kinds of goldenrod
Lavender bergamot
Musk mallow
Biennial gaura
Red monarda
Deptford pink
Rudbeckia
Perennial sunflower
Turk's cap lily
Bouncing bet
A small blue flower at the Lumber Museum
A mint-like flower at the Galeton engine house
Field thistle
Bull thistle
Monkey flower
Campsis radicans in the wild
Cow parsley
Sow thistle


Rhododendron, July 21, Dingmans Falls


Roadside flowers, July 21, entrance to Dingmans Falls


Goldenrod and loosestrife, July 21, NY Rt 97 above Port Jervis



Misc. mint, spotted touch-me-not, campanula. July 23, Dorflinger Glass Works, White Mills (near Honesdale), PA.


Vervain, white sweet clover, Queen Anne's lace; oxeye daisy; cutleaf teasel, July 25, Towanda, PA.


Blue bellyflower, orange hawkweed, July 25, Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, Galeton PA.


Engine house mint, July 26, Galeton, PA; musk mallow, July 26, Newfield PA; gaura, July 26, Colesburg PA



Monarda, bouncing bet, perennial sunflowers, Ansonia PA July 26


Joe Pye weed; japanese hops and bellyflower; Wellsboro PA July 27


Bellyflower closeup, Wellsboro PA, July 27

All entries for this vacation are tagged "anniversary trip."

Comments

[pameladean]

I think "engine house mint" should just be the new name for that flower.

There's an amazing number of natives in there, really.

P.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've now reached the point in life where "engine house mint" or "blue bellyflower" is as far as I'm prepared to go. And you're right, there are several natives in the list. But there are abundant aliens.