10/11: pennsylvania smartweed

We drove to the Schafers' farm fields today to do some bee-keeping chores for our hives there. And it's the season for Pennsylvania smartweed! It was blooming along the roadsides and in the random spaces that haven't been sown with crops. I don't remember Pennsylvania smartweed from my days in Pennsylvania, but now I am glad to see it because its name is a happy reminder of my native state. A friend in graduate school once said she dreamt that I was an evening primrose, and she explained that that's a good thing since--herbally speaking--evening primrose is such a helpful plant. But I think it's more likely that I'm a Pennsylvania smartweed instead.