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America has reached 250 years, and I am grateful to be here, in the best country in the world. Thank every one of you who helps make this country a better place, those who have gone before and risked it all, and those who've paid the ultimate price to make the United States what we are today.
Happy Birthday America! Let Freedom Ring for all time!
In the first picture, it looks like Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) - a wild tea, (the purple flowers lower left corner), and in the second is Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) - a Milkweed. There should be good cordage fibres in the stalk, but I can't remember if I've ever tried Butterfly Weed for cordage. Have you?
It was used as a medicinal plant by early peoples.
In the winter, when I'm out hiking, I pick a dead head of Wild Bergamot, crush it and smell it - reminds me of summer.
Doc