I am Varitek

OK, I'm not, but the Globe had a quiz on their website to help you find out which Sox player you are most like and Varitek came up for me. I was expecting J. D. Drew, but it's a personality not a performance test.

Things are very quiet by my back door, but two catbirds are constantly going into the bushes there with bugs in their mouths. The dapper little catbird, the raspy voiced cousins of the mockingbird, is not normally a quiet bird so there must be a nest in there. Catbirds nest very close to the ground so being quiet during the nesting season helps to keep predators like cats away. The problem comes at the fledgling stage when momma and poppa slow the feeding down to entice the babies out of the nest. The last time this happened in my yard we had two days of squeaks and meows before the kids got the idea it was time to leave home. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is becoming more and more an invaluable resource for amateur birders. If you want to learn more about catbirds or any other American bird visit their excellent website.

Native tomatoes, beans, and corn have joined blueberries as the most coveted local produce available at our farmstands. What useful plants are available in the wild? One of my favorites is orange jewelweed. This is a common plant of our wet woodland edges. It's a relative of the typical garden impatiens. Like impatiens the tiny seed pods explode when touched giving the plant it's other name touch-me-not. Here's what the plant looks like:

The plant actually has two methods of reproduction. The showy flowers require cross pollination, but each plant also has non-showy flowers that are self pollinating. The cross pollinating flowers are the ones that explode sending their seeds to new soil where the conditions may be different from where the plant is currently growing. The cross pollination can potentially produce the genetic diversity needed to adapt to the new condition. The self pollinated seeds has the same genetic components as the parent so it is already adapted for success on the spot where the parent grew. The showy flowers require a long tongued bee or butterfly to pollinate it. Bumblebees sometimes cheat by eating a hole in the base of the flower to get to the nectar without picking up the plant pollen; once a hole is drilled other smaller short tongued insects will steal nectar from the hole.

Watch for a rarer pale yellow species of jewelweed which is present at Sheep Pasture along with extensive stands of the orange variety.

You may have heard that the crushed stems and leaves of the plant can cure poison ivy rashes. Scientific tests have shown this not to be an actual cure, but the cool juice of jewelweed is soothing until you can get a more efficacious remedy.