The stone house beside the stop sign to get back on the highway in Franktown
had these beautiful hollyhocks growing in the garden.
Since it was such a small town, I parked at the stop sign to take some photos.
And the sun came back out from behind the clouds to cast these fascinating shadows!
While following the path through the purple loosestrife this morning,
I was comparing the different environments
it grows in.
While I was in Franktown, I took a detour along Lilac Lane, (Note to self, go there in the spring*!!!) and ended up beside the baseball/soccer field. At one end of it, there was a chimney. All alone.
I am guessing the house must have burned years ago, and this is all that is left.
Driving through Franktown, I was struck by this unusual steeple.
There was only one rounded tower.
This field of grain took a lot of rain or wind damage. Honest, it is a flat field, and what looks like hills and valleys is the standing or fallen grain.
This was Friday evening, a couple of hours after the storm dumped two inches of rain on the area over the course of two hours. The paper said enough water made it into the Ottawa River to fill 70 Olympic swimming pools. This is the path we usually take to get to the path on the other side of the Carp River.
Saturday morning, the water was down enough that you could see the top of the storm drain about a third of the way across.
Sunday evening, we took the long way around, and watched the geese at the hill of the storm drain. That was where the turtles laid their eggs.
This morning, the water is only eight inches above normal, and you can see some of the rocks of the path, beside the joe pye weed.
Sunday evening
and this morning, they are looking more normal.
Friday morning, these chamomile flowers had been happily above water. I took the photo on Sunday evening. They saw air again yesterday.
Sunday morning damage on the tributary of the Carp River,
and this morning, a duck floats downstream.
In the next photo, the flattened vegetation shows how high the water was at the peak of the flooding in this deep valley.
Friday evening, the water in the ditch between the road and the Carp River was just above my knees when I waded across. Both of the dogs had to swim.
In April, shortly before the flower season started, I took a series of photos of trees which had started growing on top of a stump from a former tree, and then proceededto strengthen their roots so they are above ground level.
Someone posted a similar photo, but her tree had grown to fill in the space between the trunk and the ground.
Obviously, these have not. I think they look very strange.
I picked myself a bouquet of flowers - 
Queen Anne's lace, purple loosestrife, tansy, some wild grass, and a bit of sweet clover.
I love the mixture of colours and textures, shapes and colours. This Queen Anne's lace shows the purple heart of the flowerhead.
Yesterday afternoon, we had more than 40 mm of rain in about two hours. I was at work, and missed the flooded streets, but these two photos are of the path between the catchment basin and the marsh where Jake and I can usually walk without getting out feet wet. Annie just goes for a wade here and there. The first photo was taken at 7 PM, while the second was at 7 AM, and shows the top of the storm drain in the middle of the "hill", about six feet above water level where the turtles laid their eggs in the spring. They have drowned by now...
This clump of cattails is usually at the edge of the water.
This duck family from spring is on that tributary, a bit upstream,
while this was what it looked like last night.
All of this area was developed to protect the houses surrounding it from flooding, but a lot of people had two feet of water in their basements yesterday. We were lucky to only have a couple of gallons come in the basement window. There are rumours that a couple of people were electrocuted in their flooded basements.
There was rain in the night,
and the daylilies were still covered with droplets
when we were out for out morning walk.
They look so fresh and new!
Black eyed susans were my grandmother's favourite flower.
I look for them every year.
This cluster of blossoms looks so interesting with the delicate grass on them.
The hollyhocks are starting to bloom.
They come in so many colours!
I like the way the pollen falls onto the petals, and simply pools there.
These calendula flowers
are sometimes called pot marigold.
They are living in the garden at the church.
This is a domesticated variety of milkweed called Ice Ballet,
while these brighter flowers are more distantly related, and are better known as butterflyweed.
The goose on the left is the largest of the family, 
but I can no longer identify the other adult.
Is it just me,
or are these images a bit disorienting?
These two poppies were at the college, and I had never seen such colours before.
This one is about to open,
and another has already burst forth.
The clouds of sunset
were simply breathtaking last night.
These photos are all
straight out of the camera.
While I was at the college, I saw two rabbits and a chipmunk. This was the only one who posed for me, though.
I have no idea what sort of a plant this is,
but there was a whole bed of them, some of them coming into bloom.
The sea holly is just starting to bloom at the college.
The spiky look is so different from most flowers.
And it is a blue flower!
Yes, I know this is my second Watery Wednesday post, but when I can't decide which to post, I simply post both of them. This purple loosestrife was growing beside the water, so the reflection of the trees appears, too.
This is a cultivated variety of the common weed fleabane, called Azure Fairy. The blossoms are easily three times as large as the wild variety, but otherwise the same.
I have no idea what sorts of aliums these may be,
but there are a lot of them.
They are at different stages of blossoming, and come in so many colours.
But this is my favourite shot, with the water and the lady's mantle in the background.
The only delphinium which was labelled at the college
was the Purple Pagan.
It is an incredible colour combination,
and I simply could not stop taking photos of it.
This iris was not blooming last month, but it caught the sun on Monday.
No idea what a spuria iris is, though.
I have no idea what these flowers are, other than showstopping.
They were in bud when I was at the college last month.
I am taking a lot of photos of the borage flowers just now. In medieval mythology, they were the exact colour of the Virgin Mary's cloak.
Annie spotted this fellow first. He was only the size of the palm of my hand.
Even baby snapping turtles are ugly, but I have to admire the pattern on his shell.
The catchment basin was very still Sunday morning,
and reflecting the clouds and the surrounding plants.
Except for the bugs, I wanted to stay and admire it all.
But then the dogs would not have had their walk...
I had never realized there were variations in the colour of milkweed flowers.
The paler ones are common milkweed, while the more red flowers are swamp milkweed. There is a third, white milkweed that I have not seen.
These weeds are everywhere, but they are pretty, 
and I do not have to remove them from Annie's coat.
These are hybrid daylilies which do not set seed. They propogate from the roots.
Apparently the buds taste like green beans when they are cooked. I am not sure about the yellow ones, though.
Bindweed is a member of the morning glory family. Someone is letting it grow in their garden, but mostly it grows in the fields.
I am not really sure of the name of this grass.
I love the way the sun catches in the long hairs!
I am finding it hard to believe - before this spring, I have never seen a turtle laying eggs before, and this is the third one in a month!!
One of the ones I could not find a label for.
And I love the contrast in the colours and textures of the petals.
The honeysucle was blooming, that Saturday at the college.
I took these photos during the overcast part of the afternoon.
I didn't see any bees around this plant, though.
Did I mention that sometimes I had to crawl on the grass to be able to see the labels?
This one appeared to be labelled Marshmallow Frosting, but I don't see that name applying to this colour.
Dreaming Yellow
Dewful
Caesar's Brother
Bastardi is the oldest of the irises they had, dating back to 1846.
