Summer’s cusping

 Our local goats beard plants have gone to seed. The seed heads look like oversized dandelion plumes. Another sign that summer is on the cusp, although with today’s temperatures, it’s hard to tell.

yellow goatsbeard seed head

Photo by J. Harrington

Some plants growing in the roadside that I was convinced were milkweed haven’t yet produced blossoms. Most of the other milkweed I’ve seen along ditches had blossoms in abundance. I began to wonder: don’t all milkweeds flower? were these not milkweed? A little searching among the internets turned up some answers. Drought can limit blooming. We’re back into drought conditions around here. Also, some varieties don’t bloom their first season of growing. I’m not sure which variety, but the majority of plants around the property are common milkweed, so I suppose the non-bloomers are also. But I wasn’t sure, when they didn’t bloom, that the plants in question are actually milkweed, so what do I know? Maybe next year we’ll be able to tell for sure.

During the next few weeks, we’ll begin watching for whitetail bucks with their antlers in velvet. This is the time replacements for the antlers they dropped last winter will begin growing. It’s always a treat to see bucks in velvet, even though it’s been years since I’ve hunted deer.

MILKWEED

James Wright

While I stood here, in the open, lost in myself,
I must have looked a long time
Down the corn rows, beyond grass,
The small house,
White walls, animals lumbering toward the barn.
I look down now. It is all changed.
Whatever it was I lost, whatever I wept for
Was a wild, gentle thing, the small dark eyes
Loving me in secret.
It is here. At a touch of my hand,
The air fills with delicate creatures
From the other world.

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