On the eve of Independence Day

Barring presently unforeseen tornados, floods or locust swarms, by this time next week the common milkweed and swamp milkweed should be close to or at full flowering. Today, while mowing, I noticed two swamp milkweed flowerheads beginning to open. Yesterday, as I walked SiSi, we could see the common milkweed flowers developing. Sometime this weekend we'll go looking for monarch eggs and / or caterpillars. Scanning photos from prior years, we seem to be about on schedule for milkweed development.

common milkweed starting to flower

Photo by J. Harrington

Meanwhile, the day lilies behind the  house have exploded. Their burst of blossoms are a reasonable, and quieter, alternative to the typical July 4th "bombs bursting in air." If the swamp lilies had accelerated their flowering by a week or so, we could have enjoyed orange and red flower bursts for the Fourth.

day lily blossoms are bursting in air

Photo by J. Harrington

Our extended weather forecast doesn't offer any relief from the streak of heat and humidity we've been "enjoying." I'm starting to focus on which outside chores can be done in small chunks or deferred until cooler temperatures return, yet still get completed before snowfall makes them moot. Do you know the only month of the year when there hasn't been a snowfall in Minnesota? Do you also know that  that answer is debatable? How's this for a July 4th fantasy for Northern Minnesota: fireworks cancelled due to blizzard? That would do a real number on any monarch butterflies up there, wouldn't it? No matter how volatile the climate becomes, we can't evade our dependence on nature, even on Independence Day.

a solitary swamp milkweed reaches for the sky

Photo by J. Harrington

On the Pulse of Morning

By Maya Angelou

A Rock, A River, A Tree

Hosts to species long since departed,   

Marked the mastodon,

The dinosaur, who left dried tokens   

Of their sojourn here

On our planet floor,

Any broad alarm of their hastening doom   

Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.

But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,   

Come, you may stand upon my

Back and face your distant destiny,

But seek no haven in my shadow,

I will give you no hiding place down here.

You, created only a little lower than

The angels, have crouched too long in   

The bruising darkness

Have lain too long

Facedown in ignorance,

Your mouths spilling words

Armed for slaughter.

The Rock cries out to us today,   

You may stand upon me,   

But do not hide your face.

[...]

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