Barnes and the Bog

A cool, overcast day - perfect for taking photos of flowers and re-visiting a few of my favorite places! 
There's a lot going on out there, summer blooms - whorled loosestrife, moth mullein, swamp candles, and even the rose pogonia orchids at the bog! The summer months also bring out the sedges (have edges) and rushes (are round). At the bog, some interesting changes have taken place after this winter's management of chopping down the trees (many were the high bush blueberries) that had been slowly but very surely taking over the sphagnum mounds, the bog plants have been able to breathe and get their much needed sunlight with the trees gone, and the round-leaf sundews have been taking full advantage of that! I found sundews in areas I've never seen before! 
At any rate, click 'read more' to see photos from today's adventures and to learn more.
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Barne's Preserve

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Brown's Lake Bog

Down the path to the boardwalk, treading along soggy boards, surrounded by birdsongs and being eaten by mosquitoes, carving a path through the cinnamon ferns, finding an opening overlooking the sea of sphagnum mounds, blooms of rose pogonia orchids, carnivorous pitcher plants with their alien spaceship flowers, the sticky round leaf sundew, past the rushes rising up, spotting a red admiral and a twelve spotted skimmer, in the water an arrow arum fills with seeds, the swamp candles (the flower resembles the whorled loosestrife), then at last you get to the kettle bog. 
Anyone who visits needs only to stand still and observe for a few moments to see and feel a whole other world open up.