Salt Meadow Prairie

Hi! I hope everyone's having a wonderful weekend!

A few days before H. Irene arrived I made a special trip to the marshside bird sanctuary, knowing the  marsh might be destroyed or damaged by the storm. (no.)

The prairie garden was beautiful, in full late summer bloom. An almost medieval tapestry of flowers, so dense and rich and colorful....

I love seeing this oddly out-of-place meadow grow each year. It includes drifts of tallgrass prairie grasses not native to my sandbar island...[the marsh is beyond the trees...]

Someone, no idea who---decided that this area should have a Midwestern grasses and wild flowers landscape.

Ecologically incorrect but so charming. Notice the diversity! Bachelor Buttons, coreopsis, black-eyed susan, pink coneflowers, queen anne's lace, Californai poppies..and more!

...and it speaks to my prairie childhood...

A thunderstorm loomed the entire time...

And lightning flashed far away over the  mainland...

The marsh itself was quiet but the osprey family was still there in its nest. At least two adults and I think three young ones, almost grown but still home with Mama.

One of the big ospreys noticed me, standing alone on the berm perhaps a half mile or more away [their eyesight must be amazing...] and he came for a look at the human intruder. Maybe a little closer-up and personal than I really want to see an osprey!

The marsh survived the various storms, as always.

And the ospreys disappeared ahead of the coming tropical winds. The grass is slowly turning amber....

...autumn awaits.

love


                 lizzy


gone to the beach