The property has several clusters of hoary puccoon in bloom. Dandelions are more seed heads than blossoms. Today’s weather is as close to perfect as we’re likely to see, sunny, mild, very light breeze. We kept our No Mow May pledge and waited until today to mow the patch near the bur oak down by the road. The gravel shoulder the township installed last autumn it then plowed across the easement and onto our property. The mower was set as high as it goes and still managed to suck up some of the gravel. It’s unlikely we’ll get any satisfaction other than complaining about it. Mosquitos are as thick as, or thicker than, I’ve ever seen them. We need a major hatch of dragonflies and/or bats. The poison ivy down by the road ditch doesn’t seem to have been terribly sickened by the Roundup we sprayed on it last week. We’ll try hitting it again.
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| hoary puccoon cluster
Photo by J. Harrington
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Goat’s beard is close to blooming. Milkweed is about a foot or fifteen inches tall. Turkeys are still playing as if it’s mating season. Dame’s rocket has come into bloom over the past few days. We’ve still not started our three sisters garden. Maybe the weather and other obligations will cooperate enough so that we can get started this week or next. We’ll see. Meanwhile, we’ll hope every summer day is this pleasant, with rain only during the night mid-week. Mary Oliver knows what we’re talking about.
The Summer Day
by Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.
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