Basketball Hoops and Parachutes.....

Since it's Father's Day,

I couldn't resist adding this picture

of the Old Cottonwood Tree at the Tree Fort.

Our sons and daughter built and played here.

They even asked Old Mrs. Cottonwood

if they could play basketball beneath her limbs

and she said, "Yes."

(Did she know they were going to nail a rim onto her trunk?)

Eastern Cottonwood Tree

(Populus deltoides)

A very stout, water-loving tree that is sometimes found on the prairie near creeks or ponds.

She can grow from 80-100 feet tall with a girth of 4-5 feet;

she has perfect heart-shaped leaves with serrated edges.

It's Cotton Time when the lady trees let loose their cottony billows from strands of pearls.

Floating through the air, these little seeds are searching for a nice, wet place to set down roots and sprout into grand trees themselves.

Western Salsify

(Tragopogon dubius)

About 2 inches across, borne on single stems that are 1-3 feet tall.

Grows on dry prairie (and in my flower gardens).

The milky juice in the stems was used by Indians as a remedy for indigestion.

Who can resist Salsify's giant puffball seedhead?

It makes a dandelion look like a Sissy!

Another name for this plant is "Goatsbeard."

My children and I prefer this name, can you imagine why not?

Parachutes......

......and you thought we humans invented them!

(click on picture to get a closer view of the parachutes)

"While the earth remains,

Seedtime and harvest,

And cold and heat,

And summer and winter,

And day and night

Shall not cease."

~Genesis 8:22