Farewell, My Little Lovelies

No time for a woods walk or river paddle today. I'm doing laundry, preparing food to leave with my husband, and packing for a five-day total-immersion experience at a field meeting of the Botanical Society of America (Northeastern Section) in Ithaca, starting tomorrow. We'll be exploring acidic bogs, limy marl ponds, rich woods, calcareous shrub fens, northern forests, sedge meadows, peat swamps, talus slopes, white-oak swamps, gorges and waterfalls, etc., etc., etc. That's during the days. Plus botanical lectures in the evenings. I think I will get my fill of rare and wonderful plants. And rare and wonderful plant people.

I don't think we'll be looking for or discussing those pretty little roadside weeds pictured above. Alfalfa, Maiden Pinks, Yellow Bedstraw, Daisy Fleabane -- all as common as the barren dirt they grow in. But just because they're common, that doesn't mean I don't love them. So I'm giving them pride of place today, just to let them know I won't forget them while I'm off looking at rarer (though not necessarily more beautiful) flowers in Ithaca.

I won't be able to post blogs from there, but come back in a week or so to see what we found.