Ode to a Gallinule

 

Today I worked from home and had meetings all day. Four of them!! The first one is a check-in and usually lasts three minutes because nobody has any questions, but today they had all the questions, so it went well beyond its half-hour scheduled time. Another one ran over too. Also, I was very sore after our long walk in the marsh yesterday, but I have still managed to walk over three miles today, just very slowly.

This evening Travalon and I went to the new Turkish restaurant not too far from our house again, then we went to the music club we belong to. Usually I go there for Irish sessions or jam sessions, but today they had a concert of acoustic music. Travalon really liked it because they played his kind of music, and I enjoyed it too. The vibe there is so laid back, although the parking situation was bad so we missed the first song, and lots of people came in after us. The place was packed! We sat on a couch in the back, so it felt like being in a living room, especially since there were chocolate chip cookies and iced tea. A good way to celebrate the longest day of the year. As Colbert noted, last year the longest day was on June 21, but this year it's been every day since the inauguration. It was still light out when we got home, so Travalon fished off our dock while I joined Night Prayer. Tomorrow is supposed to be very hot for our outdoor gig, so hopefully we don't have an exploding violin disaster like what happened nine years ago at a different outdoor gig.

As promised, here are some flowers we saw at the marsh yesterday. This one is anemone sylvestris.

This one is sulfur cinquefoil.

And this one is spreading bladder pod, which sounds more like a disease than a flower.

This purple one was called hairy vetch, which makes me wonder about the pink-and-white one I always just call "vetch" - is it actually smooth vetch or something? Sorry, no photos of that one, but I have posted it on this blog previously. Just search for vetch.

Hmm, I think my phone's plant identification skills suck. I googled spreading bladder pod, and it looks nothing like my flower, so I tried my app specifically for plant identification, and it said it was bird's foot trefoil. That sounds right, and it looks right when I google it. I thought about getting rid of the plant app, since I have to pay for it (not much, like $30/year), but I'm keeping it for now. I don't trust my phone.

I did write a poem about our experience yesterday: 

Candy corn beak,

Giant yellow feet,

You thought you could hide,

But you must admit defeat.

I felt like a fool,

But now I see you, gallinule!

Famous Hat