Forerunner.
I thought the pokeberry season was over, but I just found the biggest patch of all.
Presented without context.
I've been meaning to tell you the turtle tunnel story.
There's a nice old park in the neighborhood where I grew up. I was just a little kid during the centennial celebration. The main room of the conservatory looks nice and touristy, but there's a seemingly endless series of run-down backrooms you can go into. Those parts used to be even more surreal because there were statues of nursery rhyme characters from a defunct theme park. It's a shame none of us thought to take pictures, or I would've had prime Internet content once creepypastas and liminal spaces were invented. These two flash photos from 2007 are the best I can do.
I heard an interesting anecdote from someone in Parks & Rec. He knew a guy, or maybe knew a guy who knew a guy, who was convinced there was something uncanny afoot with the turtles of that park. He insisted that foreign turtles were turning up in the pools in the conservatory, and he was just as certain he'd recognized A.W.O.L. turtles from the conservatory in the lagoon to the southeast. Someone had better look into this secret passageway that had to exist. Of course everyone involved in maintaining the conservatory and the lagoon said any connection between the bodies of water inside and outside the building was impossible for any number of reasons. It looked like he was nuts, or someone was swapping turtles around to mess with him, or one and then the other.
Some time later the blueprints to the conservatory were called up for non-turtle-related reasons, and the punchline of the story materialized. It was built with a system of tunnels allowing water to circulate between the interior pools and the exterior pond. This complex lay hidden beneath our feet, unseen and forgotten, but the turtles knew.
Pokeberries at the Romping Space (sort of an unofficial dog park).
Wild plants behind a mostly empty parking lot behind a mostly empty row of offices.
Pokeweed spotted on a forest trail close to a dog park.
I haven't been outside as much as I would like this summer, but I have noticed pokeberry plants growing in five different places around town. Here's the creek behind the neighborhood park.
Minnows on a flooded sidewalk.
Each time I see pokeweed in a new place I'm going to photograph it.
These things are taking over.
Red milkweed beetles (Tetraopes tetrophthalmus). When we were kids we called these "army bugs." I don't know why.