This week was hot! So hot that we couldn’t go outside much. We took walks and I did a little work in the early morning and the evening, but most of the time we stayed where it was cool.

The only outside work I did was to weed Wild Parsnip in the wetland again. I’m trying to keep one area completely free of Parsnip. It’s a nice place to be – lots of wetland flowers are blooming, and the butterflies like this hot weather.

Here are two views of the area where we sprayed Reed Canary Grass and then replanted in 2004.

This is the restored area looking south-west.

And this is looking north-west to Pine Point Prairie.

The dominant flower right now is Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata), but there are lots of other flowers starting to bloom. Here’s a closeup of the Blue Vervain.

And here are some of the other less common ones.

Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) closeup

Swamp Milkweed with Monarchs

Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum)

Joe-pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum)

Great Blue Lobelia(Lobelia siphilitica)

3 Finger Valley is all yellow with blooming Oxeye (Heliopsis helianthoides) and Giant St. John’s Wort (Hypericum pyramidatum). This area has both, but most of it is Giant St. John’s Wort.

The northern end has more Monarda (Monarda fistulosa) – here’s a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris sp.) nectaring on some Monarda.

Here’s a view of the prairie on and around our septic field. A lot of the flowers are weeds, but there are more prairie plants this year, and it does look pretty.