Plant mystery, best pralines, K-9 help, roundabout paint job

Two Sundays ago, my wife and I and a friend of ours took one of those no-rush, nowhere-we-have-to-be rides through the countryside. We wound up in tiny Whitewater, and we managed to find the nearby cemetery where a mutual friend was buried.

After we paid our respects, we decided to see where the county road running alongside the cemetery might lead. Off we went.

On the way to Whitewater, we all had noticed and commented numerous times about the prolific wildflowers tinting the fields and the shoulders of the highway. We all remembered how, earlier in the spring, we were gob-stopped by the purple veil of henbit that marked the passage of Lent. Now the colors had changed, to brilliant yellow-gold and white.

After we left the cemetery, we came upon entire valleys of unplowed fields where hundreds of acres were covered with the dazzling displays of yellow and white. At first we called all the yellow weeds "mustard," because that's what our parents called them when we were growing up and would make forays along country roads to pick greens, including wild mustard.

But we noticed that huge expanses of yellow fields were blanketed not with mustard, but with a shorter plant with brilliant blossoms that looked like buttercups.

Other fields had what looked like drifts of snow: small white flowers with tiny yellow centers. We didn't know what to call them.

The next day my wife and I drove back along the same route and took photographs of the flowering fields. And I pulled up specimens of each of the three weeds: the tall "mustard," the shorter "buttercups" and the drifting mystery white flowers.

Back in Cape Girardeau, I called the Missouri Conservation Department's nature center for help in identifying the plants. They told me to bring the plants by the nature center. So off I went.

If you have never been to the nature center, in County Park North near the Center Junction of I-55 and Kingshighway, find a reason to go. Not only does it have so many interesting exhibits, it also has a swell bunch of friendly folks who welcome visitors with questions.

Using several plant-identification books, we all finally came to an agreement on what the flowers were. The tall, yellow plants do, indeed, go by the common name of wild mustard or black mustard. The white blossoms are commonly known as fleabane. And the shorter blossoms that looked so much like buttercups are -- wouldn't you know? -- buttercups.

I noticed most of the nature center crew taking pictures of the plants with their cell phones. I thought it was to preserve the images to share on social media. Not so. They all had an app on their phones that identifies plants. Really. It really works.

(The app, called "myGardenAnwers," can be easily found online by putting "likethatgarden" in your search. The plant-identification app is free.)

Sure enough, all you do is open the app and take a photo of the plant's blossoms, and almost instantly you get an online ID. How slick is that?

So, our little trip to Whitewater had several good outcomes. We learned what to call those oceans of blooming weeds. And we found an amazing plant-identification app. All thanks to the folks who help make the nature center such a popular destination.

Thanks to all of you.

The best pralines

Pralines -- those sugar, butter and pecan confections -- are a lot like barbecue. Regional tastes vary. A lot.

But now I have enjoyed what I consider to be the best pralines ever.

As most of you know, I am not above begging for good things to eat, whether they be fruitcakes or pork rinds. And so many of you have shared your bounty over the years, especially chocolate-peanut clusters and those mouth-watering sugar-glazed walnuts.

The other day my wife and I came home to find a small-on-the-outside but big-on-the-inside gift lodged between our front door and the storm door. Inside were pralines from The Pecan House in McHenry and Gulfport, Mississippi.

As it turns out, my friend Jodi from Jackson had been to New Orleans and got the pralines, I think, at Beauvoir in Biloxi, the Jefferson Davis home and presidential library.

Let me tell you, Jeff Davis may have lost one war, but the South won, big time in the contest of who makes the best pralines.

Or make your own

And hat's off to our friend Brenda for sharing her simple recipe for pralines. I say simple, because it only has a few ingredients. But it still makes reference to that mysterious-to-me "soft ball" stage of cooking.

My mother, who was a wonderful no-recipes cook, never mastered candy making. She once announced, during an attempt to make a mixture of ingredients turn into fudge: "Honest to God, does that mean as big as a softball?"

Those dogs mean business

My wife and I were privileged recently to see a demonstration by one of the Cape Girardeau Police Department's K-9 dogs, which happened to be a beautiful German shepherd that only understands commands in German.

As the dogs approach retirement age, the police department needs to raise funds for new K-9 recruits. So far about $40,000 has been raised.

Why are these dogs so expensive? Well, if you had seen how flawlessly this particular dog executed its commands and located some illegal drugs hidden in a potted plant, you would wonder that it doesn't cost even more.

You can still help the K-9 fundraising effort by sending a donation to the Cape Girardeau Public Safety Foundation, 40 S. Sprigg Street, Cape Girardeau, Missouri 63703. Call 339-6735 if you have any questions.

By the way, the retiring K-9 dogs get to stay with the officers who are their handlers on the job.

Help out, if you can.

A painted roundabout

I have pushed and pushed for some sort of painted lane markings around the roundabout at Morgan Oak and Fountain streets near the Southeast Missouri State University River Campus. The stripes are needed especially at night to avoid hitting the curbs, which in the dark look just like the driving lanes.

It was a nice surprise to see guiding yellow stripes have been added to the newest roundabout at Independence and Rodney Street/Gordonville Road. What a big help. Thanks.

Joe Sullivan is the retired editor of the Southeast Missourian.