knee high by the 4th of July

Sunny. Noticing on the drive home last night that the corn in some places is really high this year, over 7 feet in some places. The old saying "knee high by the Fourth of July" is usually pretty much of a joke in these parts. If the corn is a foot tall by the 4th, that's pretty much par for the course. I noticed this year that the corn actually was knee high by the 4th. Maybe growth patterns in Vermont resemble the midwest because climatically we are starting to resemble the midwest. Another global warming update it seems.

flowers fall

Sunny. Soaking rain last night. This morning, golden mist in the valley as the sun shines through. Hummingbirds in the Foxglove. Blueberries ripening at the Zen Center. Sound of crickets & grasshoppers in the fields.

Wind subsiding, the flowers
still fall.
Bird crying, the mountain
silence deepens.

Zen page a day calendar

green snow

Sunny. Was driving behind a farm truck that was hauling silage the other day. As is almost always the case, some of it was spilling out the back. The little pieces swirled and danced in the air as they were buffeted about by the currents of wind. They acted almost exactly like snowflakes except that they were a light shade of green. . When they settled to the ground behind the truck, they formed a long line, that seemed to slither around, almost like a boa constrictor. Again this seemed to be due to wind currents, and resembled the behavior of snow in the road on a windy day. A little slice of January in the middle of July.

dew

Sunny. Season of dew. My sneakers get wet when picking blackberries for morning cereal. Pete Favreau's wood pile keeps growing in his back yard. Large abandoned tractor tire along Cold River Road; aspen tree growing up in the middle of it.

transition

Sunny & 48 degrees this morning. Changes as high summer transitions to late summer. Bright yellow of the ragweed appears along with the red conical seed pods of the sumac trees. Golden sunflowers blooming in Brandon. Hydrangias in bloom in Middlebury. Found some blackberries while cutting up the tree that fell last week. They were perfectly ripe, tangy/sweet.

When worn out
and seeking an inn:
Wisteria flowers!

Basho
Zen Page a Day calendar

looking & seeing

Had a couple of incidents similar to my recent discovery of Sheep Sorrel 50 feet from the house. Two of the newly found wildflowers this year are Whorled Loosestrife and Bouncing Bet. I discovered the Loosestrife earlier in the summer, and the Bouncing Bet last week in Pittsford. In the last week, I have seen that wildflower in, oh, about 100 different places. The other day I saw a patch just down the road from here. I found some Loosestrife where Kahle Road meets Rte. 133, about 100 yards from where I sit here at the kitchen table.
It's common when viewing the natural world that when you finally see something, it seems to be everywhere. I just don't understand how there could be these flowers that I've been actively searching for over the past two years without seeing them, particularly when they now appear to be ubiquitous. Where have I been the last two years? I just don't understand.
There are a number of lessons that keep recurring here on the other side of the creek. One of them is that there is a wide gulf between looking and seeing. I wish it just pertained to the physical world, but I get the sinking feeling sometimes that the answers to "life's persistent questions" (to steal a phrase from Garrison Keillor) are hiding in plain sight. They are everywhere, just like the Bouncing Bet. What is it I need to do to go from looking mode to seeing mode? That, in itself, is one of life's persistent questions.

storm & stars

Sunny & cooler. We had some severe thunderstorms last night, gray clouds scudding across the skies at warp speed. The storm had barely started when a large tree fell across our driveway. When the rain subsided, I went out to saw it up, and carelessly got my saw bound up in a tree branch. Just about that time, my neighbor from the other side of the creek showed up. I asked him if he had a chain saw to help me out of my "bind." He went home, got his saw, and helped me dismantle the tree. Later that night, as I was out surveying the arboreal carnage, another neighbor showed up with his son to see if we needed any help. Apparently the Dufners had also called to check on us. Either I am the town incompetent, or we live in a place where neighbors look out for each other.
The power had gone out during the storm so when I woke up during the night, I got up to turn off the lights still burning. A light was on in the garage so I went out to turn it off. The waxing moon had set, and the sky was very clear. The Pleiades was rising in the east. It was the first time I had seen it in months. Even though I hadn't yet put on my glasses, I recognized it. Walking out to the garage, I saw a satellite arcing from south to north directly overhead. A couple of shooting stars flashed across the sky. Looking to the south, there was something very bright hiding behind the trees. I walked further out into the yard to get a better look. It was the planet Jupiter. It was so bright it didn't even look real. I was reminded of the night last year when we went camping at Upper Two Medicine Lake in Glacier National Park, when Venus was so bright that it was visible through the walls of the tent. I turned off the light in the garage, went back to bed, and slept soundly 'til morning.

hint

As mentioned the other day, Saturday was so hot, I turned on the AC in my Honda. Went out for a walk on Sunday. It was cooler, but not appreciably so. There is a day, however, in the middle of summer, when you get the first intimation of the approach of fall & winter. I couldn't even tell you what it is. Sunday was that day. The reverse happens in the winter, sometime in January

January 24, 2008

Snow falling off pine trees on to the sidewalk at work. Looked like powdered sugar on a chocolate cake. Last night, silhouette of deer crossing Rte. 7 in Wallingford. There is a day in the middle of summer when you feel the approach of winter for the first time. Apparently the opposite is true as well. Today, in the middle of winter, I felt the approach of spring. Light snow today, but I didn't see any "spinners" like I did the other day.

blackberries

Sunny. Sweet corn for sale from the farmer in his usual place in W. Rutland. Road crews in full force along Rte. 7. Construction ongoing at the public schools. Blackberries are starting to ripen. That must mean that Erin is coming home soon. She always seems to show up in time to pick blackberries. She eats most of them.

hot

Cloudy. Saturday was a very hot day in a very hot summer. Child sticking its feet out the window from the back seat of a car. Ice being delivered to a convenience store in W. Rutland. Driving back from Burlington on Saturday, it was so hot that I turned on the air conditioning in my Honda. I've had the car for about 5 years, and I think it's the first time I've ever done that. Didn't even know it worked.

my blue heaven

Sunny. A couple of bats in the sky the last couple of nights, a very welcome sight. Solar Fest, billed as New England's premier renewable energy festival takes place on Marshall Squire's farm, the Forget Me Not farm in Tinmouth this weekend. The other day I was cutting down some brush along a small stream when all of a sudden my world became blue as I passed through a patch of the intensely blue Forget Me Nots.

simple

Sunny. Raspberry season; red stains on my shirts. Two killdeer scooting across a lawn in Clarendon. Smell of starter fluid for a barbeque. Neighbor splitting wood.

There's a stream, and there's bamboo,
there's mulberry and hemp.
Mist-hid, clouded hamlet,
a mild, tranquil place.
Just a few tilled acres.
Just a few tiled roofs.
How many lives would I
have to live, to get
that simple.

Yuan Wei
Zen Page a Day Calendar

W E Pierce

Rainy night, and a steamy morning. Had an occasion to go to Pierce's store in Shrewsbury the other day. It is a window into a Vermont that no longer exists. Had some great ginger cookies. I waited for the shop keeper to get me some from behind the glass counter, but she said to just go around the display, and help myself. They still have the old cash register there. It is the most beautiful and ornate register I have ever seen. Although W. E. Pierce is from another era, time marches on. You can find pictures and information about it online.

sheep sorrell

Rainy. I have been interested in Vermont wildflowers for over two years. I have been trying to see all the Vermont wildflowers, tracking them down, and checking them off, kind of like big game hunting for vegetarians. Awhile ago, I took a special overnight trip to Craftsbury, over 100 miles away, in search of some exotic wildflowers. After I got back, I was out mowing, and spotted something interesting in the asparagus patch. It was sheep sorrell, one that had eluded me all these years. It was all of 50 feet from the back door. Part of the problem I think was that I hadn't read the description carefully enough. I was looking for something 2-3 feet tall. It was more like 8-10 inches high.

mint

Sunny. Salt stuck in the salt shaker, my favorite sign of summer. Strawberries are gone, but sign for sweet corn appears at Wood's Market. I was cutting brush in a field, and walked through a wet area. I smelled the sweet, pungent odor of mint. I was immediately taken back to the time many years ago when we had a goat that we employed to keep the grass down around our house. The goat loved mint, and it was the height of incongruity to see this wild eyed animal with the sweetest smelling breath I ever encountered.

looking

This past weekend we visited the Chickering Bog, and the White Mountains. We spent a lot of time peering into small flowers, and looking out over large vistas from the tops of high mountains. I was reminded of a trip to Yosemite many years ago. It was at a family reunion, and one afternoon some of us took a hike. I remember walking on a dusty trail along a canyon wall high up in the mountains. We came to a place where a trickle of water was sprinkling itself down the wall. There was a bush opportunistically growing there, and there were tiny wildflowers in bloom. I remember looking into the center of the flowers. No matter how far I looked in, there seemed to be interesting & minuscule aspects of the flower that were just beyond the limits of my vision.

When I turned 180 degrees, I confronted the vastness of Yosemite from a high place on a clear day. You could see a long ways, but there were miles and miles of scenery that were way out of my range.


I spent quite awhile turning & turning; looking in as far as possible, and then out. It occurred to me that in the grand scheme of things, my size must be about halfway between the largest & the smallest things in our universe. Later on it seemed possible that if you were a sentient atom, or conscious galaxy, you might feel essentially the same way. No matter what your size, or how much you squint in, or peer out, you're going to bump into the limitations of your senses, and feel pretty much in the middle of things.

The largest is the smallest, too.
Here limitations have no place...

Affirming Faith in Mind.

glaciers?

Sunny & hot. It's been in the 90's all week. Walking in the early morning, a heron rises noiselessly out of the creek. A man & his two young sons, all shirtless & carrying fishing poles, walking through West Rutland. On a recent trip to the Barr Hill Preserve, saw some indentations in granite left behind by a glacier long ago. A small glacier or two would be welcome right about now.

squeak

Sunny & hot. Squeak of rubber soles on the damp tile floors at work. First meeting of the IRA (Ira Regional Astronomers) convened in the back pasture on Saturday night. Three charter members were present. Going out to the car the other morning, two young woodpeckers cackling & careening out of one tree to another. Their zaniness is refreshing & uplifting.

grasshoppers & ants

Sunny & hot, a very steamy Fourth of July weekend. Had all of the fans on in the house last night. A grasshoppers & ants weekend. Campers on the roads along with cars carrying bikes, kayaks, et. al. Town waterholes were full of swimmers; a fisherman on the White River. Fireworks, and yet...combine chugging along the road in Middlebury. Pickup truck full of firewood near Salisbury. Hay being baled in Mendon.

hiss

Sunny. Fourth of July weekend. Spiders in the bathtub. White's pool open for public swimming in Rutland. American Legion baseball has begun. St. John's Wort & Black Eyed Susan appear. I was out walking in a pasture the other day in the hills along the crossroads. Hiss of the wind through the tall grass...

Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise til noon, rapt in a reverie, amidst the pines and hickories and sumacs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around or flitted noiseless through the house...I grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been.
Henry David Thoreau

steel blue

Cloudy and cool. Today is about as different from yesterday as it could possibly be, but still beautiful. Steel blue color in the Adirondacks and the clouds right around them. Difficult to tell where the mountains leave off, and where the clouds start up. Three deer jumping a tall fence in West Rutland. Their grace and jumping ability is amazing to see, like they're full of helium.