Waiting Patiently for Rain. The weather forecast called for rain, so I headed out for a walk along the lake in hopes of getting caught in a downpour. It’s been at least three weeks since the last significant rainfall and the unusually warm days have made everything thirsty.   As the lake level drops, grasses that are usually up to their chins in water are now exposed to air and sunlight. Some of them are still standing tall and reveling in the last blast of summer – others ar

Native but Nefarious. Today when the trail is green on green on green this stand of pretty grasses caught my eye. The pale, narrowly pyramidal flower clusters gracefully ascending from long slender stems shone in the sunlight like illuminated way markers. Lovely. "T he moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself."

Common yellow foxtail tries for glamour. With a jazzy name like Setaria pumila you expect big things. The botanical references describe...

And a multitude of angels. Everything is bursting into bloom, exploding with color and redolent with fragrance, but this unruly stand of...