Falling in love again

with northwest Ohio, that is. A recent visit revealed new treasures. Just as a for-instance, Sylvan Prairie, a just-outside-the-city park created from old farm fields, is home to stands of golden thermopsis,

lots of wild tradescantia, and this incredibly gorgeous grass (which, alas, I have learned, is an invasive),

not to mention this exquisite little lake that reminded me of last summer's visit to County Wicklow in Ireland.

But the real highlight of that morning's ramble was the Kitty Todd Preserve, home to the endangered Karner blue butterfly. While I am not sure that I saw any Karners, the lupines on which their caterpillars depend were still in glorious bloom.

But what I loved even the more than the lupines and the possibility of sighting a rare butterfly was the landscape itself. The oak openings ecosystem, which stretches from northwestern Ohio into southeastern Michigan, is itself rare and endangered, threatened by both agriculture and urban sprawl. Many parts are called "barrens," but there is nothing barren about a field of bracken fern backing onto tall old oaks and maples.

Definitely in love.