It's everywhere!

I may have mentioned, through the course of my summer run, that we saw a lot of corn...a lot of corn. Calf-high corn in Colorado, growing throughout Nebraska until it was taller than me by the time I crossed into Iowa, then a whole lotta corn in Minnesota...as far as the eye could see, a bit less corn in Wisconsin but still plenty, and the occasional corn patch (delicious corn, by the way) in Michigan. Yep, a whole lot of corn. When I visualize this run, corn is a dominant vision (with a strong surrounding cast of soybeans, cows, horses, and wild turkeys - oh, and raspberries on every trail...can't forget the raspberries).

But back to the corn. When we pulled into our driveway upon our return to Boulder, what did we see (besides a boisterous welcoming committee)? A corn stalk standing proud in our lawn. Methinks the corn gods did not want us to forget the land I had just crossed. Since then, we have been very careful to mow around the stalk, appreciating its green leaves but with little expectation for it to do much else besides, perhaps, grow a little taller. It surprised us last week by putting forth tassels. And today, the biggest surprise of all - there is actually an ear of corn growing on this little stray stalk. What a magical summer this has been.

Top picture is an example of "real" corn in Minnesota.
The bottom picture is our wee stray stalk of lawn corn, with its mini ear in the lower left.