Friday, June 15, 2007

A-Caching We Will Go


For the past several weeks, Romie and I have been meaning to try and find some new geocaches that have been placed in our area. We've been so busy in the garden and doing other things that we've not been able to get to them. Romie suggested we do them today.

There were two between our house and Paulding, both adjacent to small cemeteries. We found them both quickly and easily. The third one was located in The Black Swamp Nature Center on the southwest side of Paulding. It was another very warm day today, but walking around in the nature preserve, in the woods, kept us quite cool.

This cache was a multi, meaning you find the first location, at which there will be coordinates for the next location, which might lead you to more coordinates, which eventually will take you to the final hiding place where, if you're good (and sometimes luck doesn't hurt), you'll find the actual cache. Creature From Black Swamp had two stages before we found the final cache.

We thoroughly enjoyed traipsing through the woods and as is the case with locations like this, finding the cache is secondary to our experience of making our way to it. It's usually early to mid-spring when we see lots of wildflowers in bloom, but there were plenty today, too.

Rough-fruited Cinquefoil (Potentilla recta)



Hairy Vetch (Vicia villosa)



Moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia)



Swamp Rose (Rosa palustris)


I first thought this was Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota),
but the more I look at it and investigate, I don't think so.
I don't know what it is, though.



I haven't been able to identify this one.


Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense)

It's past its bloom time, but I love its heart-shaped foliage.
The bloom on ginger is very unusual, and usually goes unnoticed
because it's located under the leaves and close to the ground.



Wood Violet (Viola sororia)

These are finished blooming, too, which was a shame,
because the woodland floor was covered with them.
I can only imagine the beauty of seeing all these in bloom at once.


After we found 'the creature,' we stopped at Dairy Queen for some ice cream. Romie got a pineapple sundae (ewww!) while I got my usual custom-made Blizzard: Heath made with caramel instead of fudge (mmmm!)

We started for home, taking the long way by circling around in an easterly direction so we could find two more caches. I nearly couldn't find one of them, although while looking, I found the ugliest slug I've ever seen. The biggest one, too, at about three inches long. The ones I find in my garden are teeny things, maybe a quarter of an inch long. When I got home, I googled it and it was a leopard slug.

We got home around 6:00, tired but having had an enjoyable afternoon communing with nature outside of Our Little Acre.


8 comments:

Unknown said...

Kylee, I never knew that there was a Black Swamp Nature Center! We have a place at the river near Paulding (nearer Melrose, actually) so it can't be too far from there. I may need to investigate.

Are you sure that is Queen Anne's Lace? I thought that didn't bloom until later and had a red dot in the middle of each flower cluster. (The blood of QA as she tatted the lace, supposedly.)

The other one... maybe a giant hogweed? Or that other poisonous weed... why can't I remember the name right now?

Kylee Baumle said...

Kim~

According to my "Wildflowers of Ohio" by Robert L. Henn book, Queen Anne's Lace blooms from June through November and sometimes has a purple floret in the middle, but not always. But that doesn't mean I've ID'ed it correctly either!

I think the other poisonous weed you're thinking of is White Snakeroot, and I thought it could be that, but I'm not sure.

So...back to the Queen Anne's Lace. If it isn't that, then what might it be?

Anonymous said...

What beautiful wildflowers you have photographed. I have just put together a slide show of wildflowers of England for Green Thumb Sunday. Great gardening minds think alike!
Sara from farmingfriends

Chris Kreussling (Flatbush Gardener) said...

BSG's right. It's not Queen Anne's Lace, which has a single, flat-topped cluster of flowers, an umbel.

It's familiar. I'm thinking Aegopodium, goutweed. Shots of the foliage and growth habit would help identify it.

Same goes for the other. Is it a vine?

Kylee Baumle said...

Xris, this is funny - as you were posting your comment, I was editing the commentary underneath that photo.

It's not goutweed, though. I don't have another photo of it, but I know the foliage wasn't like goutweed's.

There are so many similar looking 'weeds' out there!

Kylee Baumle said...

I forgot to answer your other question. No, not a vine.

Shady Gardener said...

Kylee, I'd never heard of the term geocache before. So, I've learned another thing new already this morning! ;-) Sounds like fun! I'm glad you took your camera.

Wow! That's quite the slug. The only time I've seen anything bigger than those little fellows you're talking about is when we went to Washington state and discovered a Banana slug crawling across the trail. Look it up! It's awesome!
(I don't know what local gardeners think about it, though!)

Kylee Baumle said...

Shady Gardener ~ Ewww! It's that "baby poop" color! Still, it would have been awesome to see!

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