Showing posts with label Prairie Phlox (Phlox pilosa). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prairie Phlox (Phlox pilosa). Show all posts

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Summer Solstice


 

Just finished Spring - a chilly start and a HOT finish!  "Now" it feels like Summer!  Crazy stuff...

Prairie Phlox (Phlox pilosa) - photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

The pastures here have been mixed in their forbs, but mostly everything has been a couple weeks later than the average from years past. Just yesterday I realized that the Prairie Phlox just bloomed and the Spiderwort is about finished.  The June Grass was at its peak last week an now maturing quickly along with the Porcupine Grass.

 

I have been playing catch up here in the Studio as usual - I have only been able to get out one morning before sunrise this June...it has been so windy that the small stuff in the pasture hasn't been too willing to hold reasonably still for my camera.  But - the evenings on the "Prairie Schooner" (my old '82 EZ-Go electric golf cart) have been fun...one thing I've been chasing are the Dickcissels, which seem more numerous this year.  

We have been hearing Bobolinks "occasionally"...don't know if they are nesting here or not?  We are just holding our breath that the pasture across the road from us "Doesn't" get mowed before the end of June this summer.  Last summer it'd been mowed early and we lost the nesting Bobolinks...a very sad occurrence...very sad.

Our Meadowlark population sounds decent - more calling than last summer...some behind us...we are hopeful there too. 

I'll end this post with a guest blog I wrote on invitation for Bleeding Heartland's "Wildflower Wednesday" - give it a read if you have a moment.  I hope you enjoy it!  Have a good summer - and stay cool out there!

https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2022/06/15/iowa-wildflower-wednesday-a-prairie-home-remnant-in-obrien-county/?fbclid=IwAR1EGI3peIrcO_mOYme0IZVqZQCphEaScnEXHLKqYI-VFYh_kCf2HE5D9oo

Friday, June 17, 2016

Late Spring on the Prairie!


Prairie Phlox (Plox pilosa)

June never seems to let up out here on the prairie.  We sure appreciate the rain but high winds, lightning and hail are the things that keep us on our toes.  We've already had several days in the mid 90's or higher and nights in the mid 70's...top that off with 85-90% humidity and it gets pretty oppressive out there!
 
We have had a good showing of forbs on the pasture and as one would expect - things are gaining momentum.  I haven't been out to area prairies this spring - its a busy spring and summer in store for us, so I'll just try and be satisfied with keeping track of what's happening here.  I've uploaded a video of Prairie Phlox on the pasture here from a couple days back...the last frame of the video is a fun one...but then my idea of fun doesn't always equate to other's opinions :)
 
"Passing Prairie Showers"
oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison
 
I just finished a painting in the studio, I had the idea for it for a couple weeks.  This painting depicts the "normal" passing showers that are so common out here in that great openness of the Tallgrass Prairie.  I used our south pasture as the "model" and borrowed some patches of Golden Alexander in bloom, from the north pasture to place in the shadow cast in the foreground during the late afternoon.
 
Late Spring and Summer paintings can be difficult because of the overwhelming greens out there so I like to take some artistic license and warm up the image with the late afternoon sunshine and neutralize it a bit with foreground shadows.  It was a bit warm the day I laid this idea out but even hotter (mid-upper nineties) while I painted in the studio - thank goodness for air-conditioning!
 
Hope to see you on the Tallgrass - stay safe and keep cool out there!
 
 
 

Friday, May 25, 2012

Still Here!

Golden Alexander (Zizia aurea)
photograph  © Bruce A. Morrison

I'm still here!  Its the spring season in high gear and I'm getting run over by it at each turn! 
 
 Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum)
photograph  © Bruce A. Morrison
 
The prairie pasture here is no exception - everything is weeks ahead...ahead of itself and ahead of me as well.
 
 
 
Large-flowered Beardtongue (Penstemon grandiflorus)
photograph  © Bruce A. Morrison

The 2012 Artisan Road Trip is gearing up for its 2012 traveling exhibits for the season...the first show will be at the Witter...being that I just exhibited there last month - I need to find some things that weren't just there!  Easier said than done!


 Porcupine Grass (Heterostipa spartea)
photograph  © Bruce A. Morrison

Been trying to keep up with the inspiration the native pasture here has to give too, but its ahead of me as well as its usual self.


 False Gromwell (Onosmodium molle)
photograph  © Bruce A. Morrison
 
This year is different from any I've ever witnessed...I'm sure it has been for most of us out there.  The prairie pasture here has plants whose blossoms fried in the late frosts, after the unusually warm weather.  Those plants are probably going to bounce back but the weather has eliminated some of the early "stars" of the pasture...or made them very spotty this year.  The unusually dry late summer/fall and winter didn't help matters much though either.


 Prairie Phlox (Phlox pilosa)
photograph  © Bruce A. Morrison

But I'm still here!  I haven't forgotten the blog! :)  I'm just trying to catch up - just like the pasture here at Prairie Hill Farm! I hope you'll enjoy some of the plants that I photographed here this week!