May 12: Wildflowers and a roadrunner

Horsemint (Monarda bradburiana)

May produces the greatest variety of wildflowers here. On a short walk down the dirt road through the woods, I've been seeing these and more:

* Horsemint (such an exotic flower!)
* Arkansas beardtongue, a kind of penstemon
* Lance-leaved coreopsis
* Hairy phacelia
* False wild strawberries (Creeping cinquifoil)
* Heal-all
* Oxeye daisies (a whole field of them, in fact)
* Spiderwort, a pretty blue three-petaled flower I used to think was trillium and now I have trouble remembering its name
* Wild phlox
* Downy phlox
* Venus' looking-glass (one of my favorite names for a flower!)

In the pastures, in addition to the buttercups there are white and purple clover flowers. Of course the fences are overgrown with white-covered blackberry brambles and honeysuckle. On sunnier slopes I caught sight of the surprisingly red trumpet honeysuckle and fire pink, but didn't get photos of them myself. I saw some Queen Anne's lace for the first time this evening.

Other interesting things I saw today: a butterfly bumping into the side of a cat, and a roadrunner right by the southeast corner of the house. Roadrunners are fairly shy, and I've never even seen one in the yard before.