Tag: wildflowers

breaking free

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I learned about how to look after a yard from my father.  I watched him trim hedges, regularly mow and rake grass, trim cedar hedges, plant pansies purchased at the May Fair, turn on the sprinkler.  The result was an orderly lawn on a small city lot.  Now, a country field surrounds my house. It teaches me to question convention…to let go and appreciate natural rhythms, both wild and orderly.  Every year I discover new plants and see new waves of growth….this year, fields of yellow dandelions preceded dazzling white daisies trimmed with red clover.

laid-back landscaper

self-seeded saplings

emerge in fields of colour

~

©2018  Ontheland

dVerse Poets Pub Haibun Monday—Complexity of Freedom

Yarrow


In a field where hawkweed

and daisies run wild

they catch my eye —

feather sashes with

perfect snow petal tops.

Only a few appear 

each year

as they have

since ancient times.

~~~

It is said that the Greek hero, Achilles, used Yarrow to dress the wounds of his soldiers. The Latin name is Achillea Millefolium, also known as Ladies mantle, Milfoil and Millefolium.

~~~

Violet


Violet bells,

if only you would 

sing your name

~~~

To know your name

I must look closely

observe your shapes,

colours, textures—

how you are arranged.

To know your name

is to learn what

they say about you

though no name will

capture your essence.

~~~

A week after finding these flowers I made a tentative identification: “Hairy Beard-Tongue”. I’d prefer to call them “Violet Trumpets”.

Viper’s Bugloss

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Bees love bugloss blue

snakes do not–they say

it’s a remedy

for their venom, still

Viper’s bugloss could

be their cousin—look

how its red stamens

flicker and feel the

bristle-sting of its

round thick stem and the

leaves, rough and pointed

like long sharp teeth or

oxen tongue. It’s a

witch’s sword in a

taut-rooted rosette

ready to brandish

penta-herb magic.

∼

‘Bugloss’ has Greek origins meaning ox’s tongue. The flowers have five petals, five sepals and five stamens.

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©2017 Ontheland