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Saturday, July 5, 2014

Queen Anne's Lace and Daddy

On my way to town this morning I noticed a few Queen Anne's Lace blooming. Only a few. Some years we have them all along the path. Queen Anne's Lace was my daddy's favorite flower. Look at the ants on this one...



Someone recently posted about this beautiful flower which made me think of daddy. Daddy used to warn us about Poison Hemlock which looks a lot like Queen Anne's Lace. He said we could tell if it was Queen Anne's Lace by the dark flower that is found in the center. Poison Hemlock doesn't have that. I love an old dirt road...



Daddy loved nature. He loved to go for long walks in the woods and was always picking up unusual rocks. Sometimes mama would get tired of him bringing in rocks and leaving them around everywhere. I remember her, a time or two, throwing some of the rocks out the back door thinking daddy would never know the difference and find them again. Don't they say it's the little things in a marriage that drive each other crazy? :)

Daddy could name just about every tree and every plant. There was no excuse for us kids not knowing all there was to know about every reptile, butterfly, insect, wild animal, tree, plant, or rock because there was a book on each of these things in the bookcase.

I love this old old picture of daddy which I've shown before. Probably taken long before I was born. He was a big fisherman too. Loved it! Sure wish I had more pictures of mama and daddy.





Here's an old one from the early 1940's. Always with a cigarette. No wonder he died so young with a heart attack...



Daddy taught me a lot. He is the reason I love being outside so much of the time. I was in ninth grade when this picture was taken...



This post was going to be about the garden and how much we need rain. The Queen Anne's Lace changed my thinking...

Thank you for visiting.

Love,
Henny



8 comments:

  1. How wonderful that your Dad taught you all about nature and to have books on it too. You were blessed. I enjoyed your old photos...everyone smoked back then they didn't know of the dangers:(

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  2. Look at all those ants on the Queen Anne's Lace! I love the old photos and your memories of your father. I bet he made that boat he is standing in so proudly.

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  3. Nice post about your dad. I agree with Far Side- everyone smoked back in the day..who knew how dangerous it was?

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  4. Queen Anne's Lace is also my favorite wild perennial flower, and I love to see the hedgerows and meadows filled with the flowers swaying in the breeze. In the UK it is commonly called 'cow-parsley' which always makes me smile ;)
    Your dad was such a handsome gentleman, you were blessed to have such an enthusiastic nature-lover, sharing his passion with you.
    He would love the Queen Anne's Lace blooming right now !
    ~Jo

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  5. Growing up in the Willamette Valley of Oregon I always thought of Queen Ann's Lace as a weed. It was everywhere,but especially along the roadside. Only in recent years have I come to appreciate it as a flower. Several years I have actually collected seed and planted this weed in my garden! It is lovely mixed in bouquets. And I have always loved that dark speck in the middle.

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  6. Oh yes, Queen Ann's Lace makes a beautiful filler for bouquets. Here it often blooms at the same time as Ironweed (such a gorgeous purple color) and Goldenrod. All taken together make for a lovely bouquet which can all be found by the roadside----all free. Nice for a party on the patio with all of them stuck into an old watering can.

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  7. Oh PawPaw was an outdoors man just like my daddy. I remember daddy know all of the trees and animals and plants names to. I love your blog it touches my life in so many ways. Thank you!!

    Love you!

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  8. Oh this post struck home in so many ways. The farmer's market I go to on Saturdays is not far from some train tracks. There is Queen Anne's Lace growing along them, which I pick to add to my flower bouquets. I always wondered about that dark spot in the middle:) The pictures of your dad reminded me so much of pictures of mine. He too was a nature and animal lover. He also smoked for much of his life, even secretly when my mother was trying to get him to stop. He too died of a heart attack while out on his sailboat at age 61. It makes me so sad that my kids, other than Meredith until age two, never got to know him, nor he them. He loved kids.

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