July 4: Passon vine

I was hunting elderberries to check their progress, and on one woody elderberry stem about my height, leaning out over the dirt road, I found something else growing. I actually walked past it first, then realized the leaves had looked familiar but I couldn't readily identify them like I would have with almost any other wild climbing plant: virginia creeper, poison ivy, greenbriar, wild grapes, and so on.

It was twining around the elderberry stem, growing among the long, smooth, regular and opposite elderberry leaves. But this vine had cute, curly tendrils and roundish, three-lobed leaves. I still couldn't identify it until I looked closer and, under a few leaves, found two little blossoms. They were still very young and hadn't developed their color yet -- just white, with petals radiating out like thin, wavy wires. Passionflowers. When they grow up, they'll be partly purple, and very exotic looking. There were also some tiny pods along the vine, which I assume will be more flowers. When the flowers fall, the small green fruits form.

July 5: Demise of the balcony sunflower

I was a little nervous about leaving my balcony sunflower for three days, but I watered it well, took a photo, and hoped for the best. When I returned, the flower was missing. Upon closer inspection, I could see the stem just below the flower had been severed. I searched a bit and found the flower, or part of it, on the wood below. It had been chewed a little bit, and torn in half, so I suppose an animal got it. My money is on a squirrel. At the farm, when some of my dad's huge sunflowers got blown down and fell over the pasture fence, the horses ate them. Flowers, stems, leaves and all, everything they could reach. Apparently sunflower plants are delicious.

It was a disappointment, and I am sad today. The flower was past its peak, and I had been looking forward to watching as the seeds formed and the head dried up. I hoped I could save some seeds and feed the others to the birds. Or, indeed, the squirrels.

I'm sure I'll have a more circle-of-life point of view about it tomorrow. One thing gardening does is forces you to learn emotional resilience.

Dreamwidth meta: I love that boom-de-yada icon (and I would love it more if animated icons didn't make me a little twitchy), but it is not one of my icons, and certainly not the one I have uploaded for my keyword "flower." Where did it come from? Sigh.