The morning following our recent thunderstorms was pleasant and beautiful, almost nice enough to forget that we didn’t have electricity. But, like a lot of people out in the country, we have a generator and I’m very grateful even though it’s sure loud outside my office window. As I sat on the front porch that morning several rose-breasted grosbeaks came in to feed.
And a house wren, a small brownish/gray bird, was constantly carrying on, probably looking to mate for the second time this summer. A lot of people are familiar with this 4.75-inch bird because it nests in yards and other places near homes.
They like it because it’s easily seen and they think it’s “cute.” But most of them don’t know that it’s really aggressive and will chase other birds out of a nest box, including eastern bluebirds. Now that we’re at the beginning of July flowers, both cultivated and wild, are blooming everywhere.
The most obvious ones are, of course, the wild orange daylilies. This daylily is native to Eurasia, but after being brought here it escaped cultivation and now grows in ditches, along highways, and in meadows and yards. Like all daylilies its individual flowers only stay open for one day.
Every part of this plant is edible, and reportedly the flower buds taste like green beans if you cook them and put butter on them. Another edible plant currently blooming is mountain mint, a native plant extremely easy to grow. Its clusters of small white flowers smell like spearmint.
