The wild purple

Purple is one of my favorite colors. I am so glad that there are lots
of different
                                                                            kinds of purple flowers to

be found near
where I live.
The other day we
collected some
pretty
purple wild flowers
on a nature walk.

These remind me somewhat of violets.Violets 
( the common blue, that is) were flowers we collected several  weeks ago. I just found a great site to check out. These are however different flowers. From this site, I have learned that there is more then one of kind of violet, check out the site, somewhat interesting.











The purple flower we found was called a Dame's Rocket. It is different then the violet. A violet blooms around Easter. A violet has five petals,
broad, heart-shaped leaves, it's Height is: 3-8 inches tall.  I think violets smell sweet.The violets we found don't grow on stalks with several blooms, they grow on their own like dandelions do. The violets we know, grow back every year, a perennial.

The Dame's Rocket is said to be biannual. Which explains why we don't remember seeing it last year on a trail we like to walk. It has four petals. It grows up to 3 feet (or higher) tall. It is native to where I live.It grows on stalks with several blooms. It has "wide coarsely toothed lance- shaped leaves" that grow 1 to 3 inches long. To me, the Dame's Rocket smells like a mix of clover and lilac. Both  these purple flowers  make a nice bouquet on the table for a few days, and  nice page in my notebook.

Anything but spiders!

I would most definitely prefer to write about almost anything else..other than a spider!

Our family read about this yellow guy the other day.. everyone seemed to think it is quite interesting.
So, I will do my best to describe an amazing animal in God's amazing kingdom..

(this photo is from here )

First of all, we learned that it is an amazing creature and known to be a "Master of Disguise". This spider changes color to match its surroundings. He's a very small spider, the largest could only be about an inch big. Unlike other spiders, this spider does not have a web. The yellow crab spider does not wrap its victims in silk, instead it grabs them and uses its fast acting venom to immobilize them, then the crab spider has it's lunch! Believe it or not, the crab spider is beneficial. They capture flies and mites. They do eat honeybees too, but we'll appreciate that they eat the bugs we swat, which is helpful.

If you saw this spider sitting on a golden rod or sunflower, you may have to look twice to find it. It also has abilities to change to white when on a daisy. Other crab spiders can resemble tree bark, leaves, fruit or even bird poop! And yet another group of crab spiders can adapt to look like ants!  These spiders are not poisonous to humans, they don't seek out humans, their bite is not dangerous. If you find one, just put a cup over him and slide a piece of paper under him and take him back out to the wild.

So, if I happen to see one myself this summer, I will take a special photo just for you..

who knows, always learning about things for a reason...


short video clip  (just click)

 here is another link,  if you want to know more (just click)