Home at last! We had quite a trip over the Memorial Day weekend. We stopped in St. Louis to celebrate my mother's 96th birthday with her. She tells me that she is slowing down. Now, she only participates on a dozen boards of directors. Her contacts and business acumen are widely sought. Then we headed up to Chicago for the wedding of our former neighbor's son. All three of their kids grew up in both of our houses. We love them and their parents. Mitch married a wonderful girl, just right for him. I posted a description of the wedding last night.
On the way home, we were deluged the first day, but the second was alive with wild flowers, like this clump of native prairie daylilies. They grow along side of the road from Chicago south and are found everywhere in Arkansas.
Another lovely orange flower is butterfly weed. It's in the milkweed family. Unfortunately, it is usually a singleton plant and all of the ones I saw were beside the Interstate. Even I am not dumb enough to stop on a 70mph highway to photograph flowers. You want to see it? Look it up.
But the Queen Anne's lace was plentiful. It's a relative of the carrot. The carroty aroma is obvious if you pull it up. In fact it's called "false carrot" too. A word of warning here: There are two false carrots, the European and the American. The European false carrot is poisonous and I don't know how to tell them apart.
Another seasonal road flower is coreopsis. This is a HUGE family of flowers, even larger than the daisy family. They are related to sun flowers. Most of them have red or brown centers in their yellow petals. They are reliable bloomers for late spring.
As you can see, in large patches, they are spectacular.
There was quite a bit of brown grass along the roads we drove. I'm not sure if this is a run away grain plant or a weed the farmers call "cheat".
You can see that it is headed out just like wheat or rye. Not sure if it's edible. I'm going to ask our county agent.
The Illinois roads were bumpy and potholed. The Arkansas roads were just bumpy. Fran suffered through it, but had to go to bed immediately when we arrived at home. That kind of pain doesn't go away at once. I hope she sleeps well. There is only one impediment beside the road residue: our AC is only working partially. The house is not insufferable, but the temperature is about ten degrees (Fahrenheit) warmer than strictly comfortable. I'll probably stay up until too tired not to sleep.
