Roadside Beauty
You know the expression, “stop and smell the roses” ? Well, our version of that is, “stop the vehicle, get out with your camera and take pictures of the roses”. The Prairie Wild Rose has started blooming recently but they are kinda beat up by the 35 mile per hour winds we’ve been getting lately.
This one was not in as bad shape as others along the road.
This is a non native grass brought over from Europe by the name of Japanese Brome.
I like how it sways with the slightest breeze. Course, here is Kansas we don’t get slight breezes, so what am I talking about?
I’ve seen this along the road but never knew what it was until after I took these pics and looked it up.
I thought it looked familiar, and I was right as it is called Wild 4 O’Clock, and is related the the garden plant many of us are familiar with.
It’s a native to Kansas, and was used by the Native Americans to treat sore muscles, burns, fevers, and the leaves were rolled and smoked.
We were serenaded as we took pictures by a dickcissel on a nearby fence.
These little prairie birds are never far away and their calls can be heard on the wind all summer long.
The evening light began to fade over the fields of young corn and soybeans, and we headed back home.
How do you “take time to smell the roses” ?
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Is your wild rose like the multi-flora rose we have here? Ours is very invasive and makes a mess of things. Great pics.
Have a great day
HI Mary,
The wild rose is a native so it behaves and doesn’t invade. I remember the multiflora rose from when I lived in Missouri and it was a non native and very invasive as you mentioned. Did you know it was deliberately planted by the pioneers in hopes it would make a good live fence?
Beautiful pics. How do I stop & smell the roses around here? I enjoy the earley mornings when it is very still and quiet before it gets too hot (desert southwest)the birds are singing, so nice. Then I get a grip get in the car ease into traffic and its off to work.
Our yard has filled with trees of many varieties and flowers-mostly roses-which we plant as tributes to our deceased friends and family. They are in full bloom as we speak and when they begin to get past their prime we pull the petals off the hips and spread them all over the yard and the floor of our tiny home. The cat rolls in them, the toddlers line them up in rows, later they get swept up to scent the wastebaskets for a day or two. We love our roses here in the SF Bay Area all year long.
Hi Lynda,
What a sweet thing to do with the rose petals. I’ll bet it smells lovely.
OMG!!! I love those late afternoon golden hours and you got some wonderful pictures as well. That outing would have been a glorious thing to experience.
I recently took time to smell the roses in Oklahoma–esp in the Wichita Mountains, which blew me away. Who knew that was there? And I grew up an hour north of the range. Black-tailed prairie dogs in a crapet of lovely yellow flowers–I’ve got pics of that on my blog. A highlight! (drove through KS too–SE Kansas was gorgeous!)
Hi Benjamin,
Just got back from visiting your site. I had no idea there were any mountains in OK. Beautiful. We’ll have to visit there someday. Thanks for sharing.
Another farmer/rancher that blogs! Yipee, and awesome photograpy to boot! Good job!
Hi Fairchild,
Just got back from visiting your site. Love it. Keep it up fellow farmgirl/blogger. 🙂
I have always been a “stop and smell the roses” kind of person. I like to just sit out on the back deck in the morning or late afternoon and listen to the birds. I just soak it all in…all of the lovely beauty.
As usual, I learned a few more things about our wonderful state from your blog. I like to “stop and smell the roses” by sitting by our pond at twilight. It is so peaceful down there with the chorus of frogs making music and the stars just beginning to come out.
Darn it!! I’ve been trying to use roundup to kill that spreading wild four o’clock. .if I had only known that one could SMOKE IT!! Maybe that would make it easier to tolerate the stuff everywhere that I don’t want it to be! Hmmm!
Melanie,
You’re too funny!!