dozens of green and brown, ball-shape burrs, ranged along underside of horizontal stems atop a lanky, slender plant. Virginia stickseed, AKA beggar lice, ripening in the late summer sun.

Aggravation

Beggar lice. It sticks to everything! Dave’s coat; my hair; my socks, jeans, jacket and sweatshirt, even the strap on my hiking stick. We’ve gone for a walk in the woods on a beautiful autumn day looking for hickory nuts. What we got was 13 hickory nuts and bazillions of beggar lice. The term “beggar […]

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KK and Dave exploring leaves and flowers of amur honeysuckle at dawn

Not My Mother’s Honeysuckle

When I was growing up, my mother maintained a little garden in a sheltered spot on the north side of the house. She said the former resident used to dump their ashes there, which made it very fertile now. At any rate, she planted some flowers there, including two varieties I thought were magical. One […]

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