Photos from the past couple days

[urbpan]

Alexis and I were surprised by a newly blooming batch of wild sunflowers in the Riverway.


I noticed this house on Market street in Brighton on my way to a workshop and felt compelled to photograph it.


New greenhouses being built at Waltham Community Farms.


Elsewhere in Waltham, just off of busy Main street, some pavement ants* get ready for a major change.

*my previous identification of this ant is under some question. any expert opinion is welcome!

Comments

[momomom.livejournal.com]

I have seen a lot of flowers from the car this week that look like that. I was assuming they are perenial sunflowers and/or Jerusalem artichoke. Do you concur?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial_sunflower

[bezigebij.livejournal.com]

I agree. That definitely looks like Helianthus tuberosus. Though it could be Helianthus microcephalus as well. In any case it's now an annual sunflower.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Interesting article!

You may be right about that; my identification of this one stops at the genus level.

[droserary.livejournal.com]

The only flowers I'm seeing right now are fields upon fields of golden rod (I'm feelin' it, too). Perhaps this frost advisory we have tonight will kill 'em all so I can breath easier? It's supposed to be 36 degrees tonight!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Remember, it's the flowers you don't notice that cause the allergies. Bright colors like goldenrod's are meant to attract insects to move that pollen around. It's weeds like ragweed and mugwort, with inconspicuous green flowers that have wind-distributed pollen, that happen to bloom at the same time as goldenrod, that mess us poor allergy-sufferers up.

Hopefully the frost will help some, but these are hardy weeds.

[droserary.livejournal.com]

Ya know, I should have known that. I'm relatively new to this allergy thing. (So I blame everything in sight.) Growing up in northern NJ, I never had 'em. Then I moved to PA and now to Ohio where pollen counts are magnitudes higher. *sniffs*

[artemii.livejournal.com]

it doesn't help that even the weather channel mistakenly puts up pictures of goldenrod when they're talking about ragweed. :P

i agree with the above comments, by the way; that looks like jerusalem artichoke to me too. there were a couple of them for sale at the plant sale up here yesterday, along with dooryard violets (see icon) and some other things i tend to think of as weedy (though certainly pretty).

[bellelvsbeast.livejournal.com]

That house is beautiful...:) I'm glad you photographed it...
I like the pic of Alexis and the sunflowers....
Pavement ants are nifty looking...