How Do You Like My Weeds?

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When we arrived down at Lake Sara (in Effingham, IL) this afternoon to celebrate Mother's Day with my in-laws, one of the first things I noticed were the bouquets that graced the living room. I love how my mother-in-law uses the wildflowers that bloom on their wooded lots to decorate the house during the spring and summer. Today, the bouquets were made up of ragwort (Senecio sp.), wild phlox (Phlox divaricata), and white blue-eyed grass (Sysirinchium albidium).

As I grabbed my camera to photograph them, my mother-in-law jokingly asked, "How do you like my weeds?" I laughed and told her it was nice of Mother Nature to give her weeds that matched her color palette perfectly.

Senecio sp. (Ragwort) & Phlox divaricata (Wild Blue Phlox)

Sisyrinchium albidum (White Blue-Eyed Grass)

Inspired by the inside arrangements, I set off into the woods to find more subjects for my lens. The Lake Sara area has just finished a record-setting April with more than a foot of rainfall. While the shoreline of the lake has gotten dangerously close to flooding, the weather has been perfect for the spring wildflowers. They are thicker than I've ever seen them in the eight years we've been visiting the lake.

Here are just a few from my walk.