'Wildflowers of the Roadsides''

I have missed doing my post on the wildflowers of the roadsides (otherwise known as weeds to some dedicated manicurists) this summer.  The main reason is that the un-mowed stretches of roadside I counted on for finding them have been taken over and mowed by people who like to manicure things too much!  I've been left noticing tiny little bits of roadside where there might be a flower or two, and scrolling back through two months of photos to find individual pictures.

The Bird's-foot Trefoil has been in bloom for months, but I noticed this one just yesterday.

Goldenrod is of course the harbinger of fall, and started blooming in early August, but finding a plant I could get close to was a challenge.

Sweet Pea is one of the most beautiful, but again you have to be close to get a good picture.

These bright yellow Sow Thistles were in a narrow boulevard beside a hydro pole.

This tiny False Strawberry popped up right by our front door and then was gone as soon as Mrs. F.G. noticed it.

I found this Chicory in a crack in the pavement down by the harbour.  It's one of our most widespread wildflowers at this time of year.

This Yellow Sweet Clover was growing in a field beside the raspberries Mrs. F,.G. stopped for.

And this Queen Anne's Lace was growing in a narrow two-foot space dividing two parking lots downtown.

The more I think about these tenacious flowers the more I think we have horticultural things turned upside down.  We love the garden flowers even though they take a lot of babying, and weeding to remove any competition, while we far-too-soon despise the 'flowers of the roadside' that bloom for months, and find a way without any care at all, to grow through a crack in the pavement or the gravel of a ditch.  It should be the other way around!     

Here's an example of spots I formerly saw wildflowers of the roadside, all mowed, several times this year.

Then there was also the rain....

We also had a serious storm this week, with lots of rain, though all I had to show for it the next morning were these raindrops.  It started with a loud siren warning in my ear which turned out to be a Tornado Warning!  I checked the radar quickly and read that a major storm front was passing, mostly a little further south.  It turned out that Port Elgin over on Lake Huron got some damaging strong winds, but I'm not sure that anything qualified as a tornado.  We did get lots of rain though.