"Wild carrot, bishop's lace, or Queen Anne's lace (Daucus carota) is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to temperate regions of Europe and southwest Asia; domesticated carrots are cultivars of a subspecies, Daucus carota subsp. sativus.Here are a few blogs that I often peruse, and some of their posts that have caught my attention recently. Hope you enjoy their sites and plonk them into your RSS reader or bookmark them in your browsers...
Daucus carota is a variable biennial plant, usually growing up to 1 m tall and flowering from June to August. The umbels are claret-coloured or pale pink before they open, then bright white and rounded when in full flower, measuring 3-7cm wide with a festoon of bracts beneath; finally, as they turn to seed, they contract and become concave like a bird's nest. This has given the plant its British common or vernacular name, Bird's Nest. Very similar in appearance to the deadly Water Hemlock, it is distinguished by a mix of bi-pinnate and tri-pinnate leaves, fine hairs on its stems and leaves, a root that smells like carrots, and occasionally a single dark red flower in its center."
- The House and Other Arctic Musings has a high arctic barbeque with seal meat and heather.
- Murat harvests birch bark in a very instructive tutorial.
- Crow's twittered (and compiled and blogged) ongoing journey on the Pacific Crest Trail.
- Winter Woman teaches us about the difference between Staghorn Sumac (yum, a nice cold drink from the flowers) and Poison Sumac (yech, exsquisite suffering).
- Alaskan Explorer takes a picture of a bear.
- Jim shares links for the latest and greatest Algonquin Park map.
- Suds reminds us about the Canadian Canoe Museum.
- American Bushman shares a few videos of Bertie Sømme's Spoon Carving Tutorials.
- Chris Townsend (Hail to the Hiker) wonders what to do with his old camera equipment.
- Decado bought the farm - but hasn't shared anything else about it for the last 8 weeks. Eh-hem. He'll be there in 4 days.
- Drawing the Motmot aptly celebrates Thoreau's birthday with a pond painting.
- The Duxbury Ramblers share a tutorial on making a walking stick with horn, sweet chestnut, and spalted elm.
- Dynamite Skills inspires us to flintknapping.
- Fenlander in Swedish Lapland makes a beautiful birch bark sheath.
- Gordon shows off a 23-pound monster pike that he caught in North East Scotland.
- Tim describes the Jack Mountain 2008 fall bushcraft sememster in Northern Maine on the banks of the Aroostook River.
- Pablo sniffs the air and inspires me to spend the evening down in the valley to look for deer.
- Sam celebrates his 300th post in the woods of Poland (congratulations!).
- Andrew up in Minnesota by Lake Superior's North Shores rounds up on insect repellents.
- Tom Mangan shares some interesting pictures on his recent hike at Pescadero Creek County Park near San Franscisco.
- The Suburban Bushwacker decides that it is wise to eat a hen pheasant that he found dead on the road, the apparent victim of a hit and run. I'd have partaken.
- Rurality displays her chickens' eggs and reminds me that it is Sunday morning and that I have not yet had my breakfast.
- Todd at PrimitivePoint smiths a smart looking custom-made tool to harvest pinyon resin.
- I browsed through Michael's (Daiku's) blog and wonderful writings.
- A vanquished barn cat and mockingbirds fight it out at Three Collie's Northview Diary.
- Nina displays some beautiful pictures of Yarrow - I need to keep my eye out for Yarrow around here.
- Mark is back from Cedar Lake in Algonquin Park, and put up with the bugs as best as he could.
- Torjus has made the break and is now living in the bush and shares his diet of wild meat and fish and some other fascinating activities with us.
- Alan Sloman hiker extraordinaire talks to Trevor the Leaning Tree in England.
Cheers,
Mungo