July 13th, 2008
As I look out into my prairie, one plant sticks out like a scarecrow in a cornfield. One of my compass plants in our prairie is taller than I have ever seen. I stand 6′1″, and I can’t reach the top of it. I estimate that is about 9′ tall and it seems to grow taller everyday. Every morning, I check on it to see if a gust of wind made it snap, but so far, it is still standing tall. The flowers are about to bloom, so I hope it stays intact.
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July 5th, 2008
I took a hike to Kaskaskia canyon again today, and found several Green Frogs resting on several logs in the water. This one in particular, stood out as it was perched on a knot of a log just off the edge of land. I was able to kneel down on an adjacent log and get within inches of it to capture this nice picture. Once I got in several shots, my kids were begging me to grab it for a closer look. And although I was able to get within inches with my camera, as soon as my hand got that close, it jumped into the safety of the water.
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June 29th, 2008
As I was taking a drive through Ottawa today, I stopped by a spot along the Fox River to check out what was flowering. The Purple Prairie Clover had just started to bloom as well as a couple differnet milkweeds. It’s good to see some purple flowers starting to bloom to compliment all the yellow flowers.
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May 18th, 2008
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May 17th, 2008
As I was driving into Marseilles today, I spotted a small patch of Hoary Puccoon in the ditch. I knew right away it was a Puccoon, but wasn’t sure which one until I consulted my plant book. I went back later to try to transplant one into my prairie, but unfortunately, the roots were deeper than I expected and my shovel was not big enough. I plan on going back another day with a bigger shovel.
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