Approaching mid-Summer #phenology

The neighborhood whitetails have started wandering by and checking the status of fruit on the pear tree. We'll do the same thing one of these days soon. The deer don't have tractors to be serviced and garden carts to be built or even blogs to write, so they can spare time to see if there are pears and, if so, how big they've grown. While we're on that hillside, we'll take a peek and see if either patch of the New England aster seeds we planted about ten days ago seems to have germinated. Our feral oregano has been blooming for the past week or two and is slowly replacing much of the grass behind the house. We haven't yet decided how we feel about that.

Summer brings pears, not partridge, in a pear tree

Photo by J. Harrington

We've been seeing an more and more butterflies the past few days, including lots of what we think are monarchs. Haven't yet noticed any caterpillars chomping on milkweed leaves but our hopes remain high.

Black-eyed and/or brown-eyed Susans have come into bloom during the past few days. We admit that we can't readily tell which we're looking at as we drive past at 30 or 40 mph. Wild butterfly weed is also flowering on some nearby roadsides and orange daylilies have burst into bloom everywhere except heavily-shaded beds.

Summer also brings deer under, but not in, a pear tree

Photo by J. Harrington

The extended weather forecast includes some 90+ temperatures and Summer-height humidity in the next week or two. We'll use at least some of those days to see if we can begin to make some sense of the tsundoku that's encroaching on numerous flat surfaces, such as floors and shelves, throughout the house. We wonder how many, if any, of the forecast humid morning's will provide the kind of views of mist-covered fields that we've grown to love.

Pear Tree

H. D.- 1886-1961

Silver dust   
lifted from the earth,   
higher than my arms reach,   
you have mounted.   
O silver,
higher than my arms reach   
you front us with great mass;   
   
no flower ever opened   
so staunch a white leaf,   
no flower ever parted silver
from such rare silver;   
   
O white pear,   
your flower-tufts,   
thick on the branch,   
bring summer and ripe fruits
in their purple hearts.

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