Trivia that matter
Unlike California, Kansas is probably the flattest and least photogenic of the fifty states, and I live in probably the flattest and least photogenic city there. Instead of mountains and lakes, I have to make do with taking pictures of grain elevators and defunct train stations, such as this one. Like most panoramas, it’s best viewed in full-screen mode. If you find the interactive panorama too dull, right-click on it and view it as a “small planet.”1
In lieu of actual content here are snapshots of four o-clocks and dianthus from my yard.
… this time with panoramas. These look best in full-page view. (If you can’t see the panorama, try a different browser. These work for me in Vivaldi but not in Brave.)
Right-click on the image to bring up a menu with different view options. The “little planet” view is pleasantly surrealistic.
Mirabilis jalapa is called “four o’clock,” but that’s a misnomer. During July in Kansas, the flowers don’t open until 9 p.m.
Two more lilies are blooming in my garden, Lilium henryi, above, and “Anastasia.” L. henryi is a Chinese species that is supposed to be indestructible. Mine is four feet tall this year, but it can get over six feet when established. The stem is thin and willowy, so if you live in a windy place like Kansas, it needs to be staked. Anastasia is an “orienpet,” a hybrid of oriental and trumpet species. The flower is large, over seven inches across. The plant is supposed to get up to six feet tall, but mine is barely three feet, making photography a bit awkward. I expect it will grow taller in coming years.
Coming soon: Sherri.
I ran some of the weekend’s snapshots through filters to make them look like pages from graphic novels. Some picture/filter combinations worked better than others.
I occasionally consider getting an automobile, but I think I’d prefer something more recent than this 1966 model.
Definitely not this one.
Here are the rest of the Smallville Con pictures.
Some years back, Hutchinson, Kansas declared itself to be Smallville, the hometown of Clark Kent. This was an excuse to launch the Smallville Comic Con, held most years around this time at the fairgrounds. I spent a couple hours there this morning taking pictures of people in eccentric clothing, plus the occasional dalek and other oddities. It may take a few days to go through them all. Here’s the first batch.
It’s prime time in the garden, so here’s another batch of snapshots.
… and geese.
I took my camera out to the park today and found a little color. The most vivid was the “purple poppy mallow,” Callirhoe involucrata, which is not a poppy but is an intense magenta.
We had a few mild days with little wind between storms this week, so I made a trip out to the nature center to see what was happening there. The answer is, not much. It demonstrated once again that, of all the fifty states, Kansas likely has the lowest ratio of native plant species to total area. According to my guidebooks, what few interesting plants there are that grow in the state are concentrated in the eastern corners. Out here in the middle of flatland, there is very little to catch the eye. The milkweed and penstemon were the standouts.
The incessant fierce winds paused for a couple of days, and I was able to rescue a Tragopogon dubius seed head before it was blasted apart by the current round of storms.
The shirley poppies, the last of this year’s hardy annuals, finally got going this week.
