Found plenty of Milkweed blooming this week. These plants are important to Monarch Butterflies. The leaves are toxic to most animals, but the Monarch Caterpillar eats nothing else. This make it and the butterflies they become toxic to potential predators.
Thistles too are beginning to bloom. We work so hard to keep these pesky weeds out of our gardens, that we rarely stop to see how beautiful they are. I allow them to grow in out-of-the-way parts of our property as they are a favorite food of Goldfinches. As I try to identify the plants I photograph, I am learning that many of the weeds we wage war on are beneficial in some way.
The wet and humid weather has produced a bumper crop of fungi, and I found this really large one growing next to the lake this morning. Something seems to have taken a bite out of it, and I wonder if it is toxic.