A good rain and mints are still blooming ... with picts!

Yesterday, we had a good rain ... actually two rains, which is better because there was little runoff ... maybe a little less than an inch total and good for our corn in the bottoms.  My Grandmother Roberts use to call them million dollar rains in July and August because of the corn and soybeans.  I remember worrying about the weather when I was young ... too much rain or too little.  Cooled everything off ... the clover is still blooming which is good for bees.

Got up this morning and picked about a gallon of blackberries for one of Granny's friends then bush-hogged until after lunch.  Left patches of Hoary Mountain Mint, maypop/passionflower, dogbane and common milkweed.  I also noticed some sourwoods blooming in the woods close to where I was bush-hogging on Aunt Nell's farm.  We have had rain regularly so far this year and everything is still green.  I am about finished with bush-hogging until late fall.  I want to plant some buckwheat for the bees to load up honey for the winter.

Going to check some hives when I finish here.

Some wildflowers ... it must be the time of year for mints ... two below.  I am going to try and get some seed later.  The first picture is hoary mountain mint which I have seen in several remote fields.  This mint has silver / whitish leave at the top of 4' plants.

Pycnanthemum incanum (L.) Michx.

Hoary mountain mint, Silverleaf mountain mint

Lamiaceae (Mint Family)

The next to pictures is of what I think is hairy wood mint.  It is not very tall ... pictures were taken in our long field before I picked blackberries this morning.

Hairy Wood Mint
Blephilia hirsuta
Mint family (Labiaceae)

The Queen Anne's Lace / Wild Carrot growing in Granny's flower bed.  Daucus carota

Also ... field bindweed is blooming ...  one with a bumblebee hard at work!   These plants are in the field across from Granny's house ... an invasive from Europe/Asia and a perennial.   Convolvulus arvensis