Do you know these little Japanese lanterns?  They are tomatillos.  Delicious garden vegetable.  This plant is a volunteer from last year's plants.

 

Tomatillos are in the Nightshade family, along with tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers.  They are more closely related to ground cherries, though, since they also have  husks.  When they are young and developing, the husks seem full of empty air, but the berries are growing inside them.  When they are ripe, the husks split because the berries fill them up.  

 

Tomatillos are the main ingredient in salsa verde.  We also love them skewered, and cooked on the grill for a couple minutes.  They are tart like tomatoes, but turn sweet on the grill.  Try them; they're available in the produce department, and probably at the farmers market this time of year.  Or grow your own; they are really easy.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

 

We've seen these bushes all along the roadways.  On Tuesday when we were traveling on 294, we were able to stop and get a picture.  I had to use my Seek app to identify it.  It told me it is Reynoutria japonica.  So I searched my reference books, and found this:

 

It is highly invasive, spreading by rhizomes, making it difficult to eradicate.  Some rhizomes are up to 10 feet deep!!!  But the good news is:  it stabilizes swampy soil, and grows in waste places;  so it does serve a few purposes.  It is also valued by beekeepers as an important source of nectar for honeybees.  The honey from Knotweed is called bamboo honey.  

 

And, my favorite part:  it's pretty!!!

 

HAPPY TRAVELS!!!

 

 

 

Here's Tere having fun in the lake.  

 

 

And me wishing I was on the boat.  Captain Roger tied this life ring to the boat so I could feel secure in all that water.  

 

I did get to tell my college swimming stories, though:  I took Beginning Swimming three times.  I got an A all three times, because I showed up and got in the pool, but I could not bring myself to get in the deep water (10 feet.) And the one time the instructor made me, I had to be rescued from the bottom of the pool!!!  They called me "Brick."  Hahaha.  It's funny, NOW!  (I guess.)  I'm just not a fan of deep water........still.

 

HAPPY TRAVELS!!!

 

 

 

Here's a better picture of the falls.  We could've gone swimming here, but it just looked too slippery to me.  So we just hung out and took a bunch of pictures. 

 

 

Old snag, still standing.

 

Such a beautiful place.  After that, we got back on the boat and went to the smallest beach.

 

 

See it there?  We waded in and floated around a while.  Nice to be in the cool water.  Jon took some pix there, but I'm not sure I'm ready to show those.  

 

HAPPY TRAVELS!!!

 

 

 

We went out on Lake Appalachia yesterday with our friends to celebrate Tere's birthday.  She's 29, wink, wink!!!  She signed up for a 3 hour tour, complete with boat captain, Roger.  He and his wife own The WagonMaster Adventure Ranch, in Murphy.  It's off 294, past the Fields of the Wood.  What a fun place.  Oh, wait...

 

http://wagonmasterranchresort.com/  You can go look for yourself.  Cool place to take your grandchildren and visitors.  We had a great time.

 

We floated on the lake in a pontoon boat, short hike up to this waterfall, and even went swimming at the smallest beach in the world.  Can't wait to do that again.  

 

Thanks for including us in your big adventure.  ❤️❤️❤️

 

 

 

Passiflora incarnata, or Passion flower is a fairly common vine that can climb to a height of 10-20 feet!!!  

 

It has large, showy lavender flowers that appear in May or June and last through mid-summer.  They grow like a weed in open spaces, and no farmer in his right mind would allow it to invade his fields.  I started out this spring weeding them from the tomato cages, but then i just let them go, because the flowers are so pretty, AND the Fritillary butterflies use Passiflora as a host plant for their caterpillars.  

 

They are blooming now.  There are about 10 vines, each one with at least 5 flower buds.  Each blossom is about 2-3 inches across, and fragrant.  The fruit that develops after the flower fades is edible.  It is a many-seeded berry about the size and shape of a lemon.  It turns yellow and wrinkly when it's ripe.  It is also called wild apricot and maypop.  We've tasted them, but they have too many seeds to warrant the trouble to process them.  That's my opinion; some folks love going to the trouble and make juices, jams, tarts and pies using passion fruits.

 

They are just too pretty to throw away.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

This is Galax.  I didn't need Seek to know that.  We've been seeing it in the woods for years.  Actually, it almost announces itself as you're walking along.  The air is filled with the scent of garlic, (some describe the smell as gym socks.)  We smell it first, then look for it.  

 

Galax aphylla, also called beetleweed, is a low growing perennial that grows from rhizomes.  The leaves are leathery, shiny, and almost round.  It blooms May-July, with a 1-2 foot stalk of tiny white flowers.  You can see the leftover stalk at the top of the picture.  In the fall, the leaves turn a gorgeous shade of bronze.  

 

It is native to southern Appalachia, but is cultivated elsewhere, and used for wedding bouquets and Christmas decorations.  In some places these plants have been threatened by overcollection, and local authorities have prohibited the sale of the leaves.  It doesn't transplant easily, so we just have to enjoy it in the wild.  

 

I haven't seen much of it in our local woods, but there's lots of it at Brasstown Bald and Blood Mountain.  Maybe it likes the higher elevations.

 

Hope you get to see some on your hikes in the mountains.

 

HAPPY HIKING!!!

 

I know I've written about Sassafras before, but this picture is so perfect, I'm going to write about it again.  

 

I want you to notice the three different leaf shapes.  There are only a few trees that do this.  Look at the leaves at the top of the picture first.  They have three lobes. Now look at the bottom leaf with its two lobes, looking like a mitten.  And beside that one is a leaf with a single lobe.  This is very typical of Sassafras.  Three different leaf shapes on the same tree.  Mulberry does it too, but I know of no others.  

 

Sassafras albidum is a native tree in the central and eastern United States, and is prominent in our woods.  It grows 10-50 feet tall, some up to 90 feet.  It blooms in early March with fuzzy yellow flowers, and bears striking blue-black fruits with red stalks in midsummer.  In the fall, the leaves turn fabulous shades of bronze-orange to clear red and yellow.  

 

All parts of Sassafras have been utilized by humans.  Here are a few examples.  The roots have long been used to make a spring tonic tea, and to flavor root beer.  These practices have died out recently (well, the last 50 years) with the indication that the active ingredient may be carcinogenic.  The finely powdered dried leaves become filé, used as flavoring and a thickener in Louisiana cuisine, namely gumbo.   The aromatic, insect repellent wood was once used for bedposts and chicken roosts. During a brief period in the early 17th century, sassafras was the second-largest export from the British colonies in North America behind tobacco.  

 

The birds love the berries, the deer love to browse the leaves, and spicebush swallowtail and tiger swallowtail butterflies use Sassafras as HOST plants for their larvae.

 

What a great tree, Sassafras.  Look for it.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

I just realized, this should have been yesterday's post.  Happy birthday!!!!!  ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

 

We love going to Meeks Park in Blairsville.  We walk a 2 mile loop there; it's always in the shade, and not too steep a climb to the ridge line.  

 

Last year the park acquired this mill wheel from the Tates, and restored it.  Then they built this structure, and turned it into a museum.  It's right by the Nottely River that runs through the park.  I'll go to the museum and learn more about it so I can tell you.  

 

We went by there on Saturday, but it was closed.  Not really a museum, more of an interpretive center.  But I'll have to get back to you on it.  Maybe it will be open in the fall, during festival season.  

 

Anyway, it's a cool thing to see, especially when the wheel is in motion.  It only takes a trickle of water to make it turn. 

 

HAPPY SUMMER!!