A time of butterflies, tassels and connections

Drove through some  pretty country this morning while picking up our Summer Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Share box 1. Birds are starting to flock up and perch together on the telephone wires. Some of the fields of corn have started to tassel. Others are barely more than knee high. Signs that the  slide of Summer into Autumn has begun?

butterfly-weed (Asclepias tuberosa)

Photo by J. Harrington

Lots of roadsides, and some "abandoned" fields in some parts of the county have many butterfly-weeds in bloom. More and more monarch butterflies can be seen. One pair I noticed this morning was probably either a pair of males in a territorial battle or a male and female in a prelude to mating. Funny how those actions can sometimes look a like.

Every once in awhile, I learn something that embarrasses me for not having learnt it some time ago. That happened today, first thing this morning. Earlier this week I finally started reading Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Deathbed Edition. That's where I encountered Whitman's poem "TO THE STATES," which begins

To the States or any one of them, or any city of the states,
     Resist much, obey little,

It's the second line that really caught my attention. I've always associated it with Ed Abbey. It begin's the title of Resist Much Obey Little : Remembering Ed Abbey (James R. Hepworth, Gregory McNamee). I confess that, so far at least, I've been much more a fan of Abbey than of Whitman. At least I've read lots more by and about Abbey. As I already  noted, sometimes it's embarrassingly clear that my education has some notable holes in it. I'm glad this one has been filled.

Summer of the Ladybirds

By Vivian Smith

Can we learn wisdom watching insects now,

or just the art of quiet observation?

Creatures from the world of leaf and flower

marking weather’s variation.

The huge dry summer of the ladybirds

(we thought we’d never feel such heat again)

started with white cabbage butterflies

sipping at thin trickles in the drain.

Then one by one the ladybirds appeared

obeying some far purpose or design.

We marvelled at their numbers in the garden,

grouped together, shuffling in a line.

Each day a few strays turned up at the table,

the children laughed to see them near the jam

exploring round the edges of a spoon.

One tried to drink the moisture on my arm.

How random and how frail seemed their lives,

and yet how they persisted, refugees,

saving energy by keeping still

and hiding in the grass and in the trees.

And then one day they vanished overnight.

Clouds gathered, storm exploded, weather cleared.

And all the wishes that we might have had

in such abundance simply disappeared.

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