British Soldiers (Cladonia cristatella)

Well I meant to get this posted for the Fourth of July, but you can move the clock back for a day to imagine my patriotic alert about the British Redcoats.  This is a fruiting lichen that has taken hold of a fence post in the yard.  It’s quite small (think of miniature match sticks) but within this tiny world is incredible complexity.  The lichen is a marriage between an alga and fungus that succeeds through cooperation at the most basic level.  Both are required before you see the little red caps that release the fungus spores.  You can see how the brilliant red gave them their nickname harking back to the american revolution. They are also known as matchstick moss or red crested lichen.  I’ve been wrestling with how to photograph all the detail at this level and this is best I’ve come up with so far.

British soldiers (Cladonia cristatella)

We have had wonderful weather for the fourth of July holiday, almost unprecedented.  It’s inspired some really lovely flowering around the yard.

Bletilla ‘Kate’

Stewartia japonica

Astrantia ‘Sunningdale variegated’

St John’s Wort (Hypericum ‘Hidcote’)

Gentian septemfida

We get seedlings now from Prairie Sun that seem to have no trouble from year to year.

Rudbeckia hirta ‘Prairie Sun’

And a new daylily from Oakes.

Apollodorus Daylily

And we have new seedling Corydalis in the greenhouse derived from Dufu Temple that is flowering from seeds planted in January.

Corydalis sp ex Dufu Temple

Of course one does not live simply by photographing flowers.  We have been harvesting gallons of blueberries (about 8 gallons frozen so far this year).  This is yesterday’s pickings.

Gallons of Blueberries

And we made blueberry ice cream for the fourth of July.

Blueberry ice cream

Yum…