parking lot

Sunny. We have had a spate of warm, dry weather, great for astronomy. When Erin was here, we went out stargazing over at Pete's house one night. We got some great views of clusters, and nebulae to the south. I was hoping we'd get a look at the Andromeda Galaxy which is currently situated in the northeast. I couldn't find it, mostly because Rutland is also to the northeast, and the light pollution obscured it. Pete said the light from Rutland is much worse than when he first came here. Honestly, I didn't notice it until I started with the astronomy myself. He said it's mostly due to the new intensely bright flourescent lights now being used in industrial parks, and parking lots.

vista

Temps in the 80's, but still out sawing up wood for winter this afternoon. I am way back in the woods this year at a patch cut that was done last fall. Make quite a racket, but when I stop, it is amazingly quiet. The only sound comes from squirrels, methodically gnawing on nuts, somewhere in the forest. This is what I see when I'm wiping the sweat off my forehead.

grandfather clock

Sunny. Bright moon and silvery clouds on the drive home from the Zen Center last night. Jupiter was shining brilliantly almost directly below the moon. The pair looked like a celestial grandfather clock with the moon being the face, and Jupiter the bottom of the pendulum.

orange hawkweed

Cloudy. School buses spotted in W. Rutland. The whole summer season can be marked by the transition of the wildflowers. They appear. They flower for a couple of weeks. They're gone. May, June, July, August...Bloodroot, Ladie's Slipper, Spreading Dogbane, Cardinal Flower...turn, turn, turn. There is one wildflower that runs against the grain. It is the Orange Hawkweed, sometimes known as Indian Paintbrush. These bright orange wildflowers are among the first to appear in May. It was the first wildflower that caught my eye when Allyn & I lived here in the '70s. The other day I was heading to production, and there were three plants of Orange Hawkweed, still producing robust and colorful flowers.
Somehow they remind me of the goldfinches and chickadees which hang around all year long when so many of the birds come and go. These birds appear to have a zest for life that is totally unaffected by the dark days of late fall and winter. It is inspiring to have these examples of joyful fortitude and endurance to witness in the natural world.

falling apples

Cloudy. Primary election night in Vermont. First day of school for Allyn. Red apples falling on the roadside on Chapman's Hill. Ghostly white undersides of the silver maple appearing when blown by the wind.

Sturgeon Moon

Cloudy. Grasshoppers on the walkway at work. Purple & yellow of the New England Asters appearing. Full moon, the "Sturgeon Moon", tonight.

cardinal flower

Cloudy & cool. Spend Sunday in Ct. with Ellen & Russ. We took a hike, and saw some Cardinal Flowers! What a treat. Trucks carrying rides & refreshment stands traveling Rte. 7 from fair to fair. Football practice at Rutland High School. Orange maple leaves on the lawn.

passing

Sunny. Badminton net up in Kathleen White's back yard. Wood for winter is stacked in Pete's back yard next door. Small vegetable stands along Rte. 7. Campaign posters on lawns. The sunflowers are starting to droop in the field in Brandon as they do every year at this time. It's almost like they acknowledge, and are resigned to the passing away of summer.

bzzzzz

Glorious morning. Milkweed yellowing, Jerusalem Artichoke soaring, ragweed proliferating. Boneset, Jewelweed, Knapweed, Pearly Everlasting, Common Evening Primrose, Northern Willow Herb observed. Some of these can be seen in Montana. Allyn's herb garden is overflowing with basil, parsley, sage, and bright red geraniums. Picking some parsley for dinner the other night, sound of a bumblebee.

star guy

Cloudy. Checked out the Perseid meteor shower on Friday night. Saw some nice ones. Went to the dentist yesterday, and the dental assistant asked me if I'd seen any meteors.
I said, "I'm kind of an amateur astronomer. Don't get me started."
She said,"That's what I heard. When you came in, one of my co-workers pointed you out, and said you were the star guy."
Nobody has ever called me the star guy before.

vine

Sunny. There is a vine that is very prolific at this time of year. It sends out spikes of white flowers at the tops of the bushes it inhabits. It looks like bushes all over Vermont are adorned with pearly white tiaras. I don't know the name of this vine. Kate Carter, the lady who wrote Wildflowers of Vermont, also has a book on the flowering vines of Vermont. I'm not buying that book. I have enough obsessions.

drama

Cloudy. Scarlet Tananger on Black Mountain in Dummerston. PG Hydrangias in bloom. Sound of crickets in the kitchen. Two young teenage girls in flip flops, heads down, walking down a dusty road on a hot evening; seemingly oblivious to everything around them except the drama of their own lives.

bowl of blackberries

Sunny. The other day I went out in the back to pick a bowl of blackberries for a friend. After a few minutes, I looked into the bowl at the berries. I was astonished. The berries shone so brightly in their blackness. They were so intelligently designed, so elegantly arrayed, so simple and utterly miraculous. I fleetingly had the feeling that the answers to all of life's mysteries lay in that bowl of blackberries if I could only find the proper translation. The last time I had that feeling was just about a year ago looking at the stars over Upper Two Medicine Lake in Montana.
Erin asked me about a song I was singing along with when we were together last weekend. I found myself singing that song again when I was picking those blackberries.
...Then higher still
Beyond the blue until
I know I can
Like any man
Reach out my hand
And touch the face of God.

Mornin'
Al Jarreau

steamy

Cloudy. After Martha's Vineyard, noticing the "high season" in rural Vermont. Tents in the neighbor's back yard, picnic tables on the lawn, slides that empty into ponds. Yesterday was a steamy one. Every time I went into the men's room at work my hair looked frizzier than the time before. By the end of the day I looked like Harpo Marx.
Oblivious
to the gaze of the thief:
Melons in cool shade.
Issa
Zen page a day calendar

dragonflies

Cloudy. Noticing dragonflies in the back yard last night. Initially I thought they might be gathering for their annual flight south, but it's too early for that. The migration takes place in September. I went outside to watch. There must have been 50 dragonflies zooming around the back yard, and back field. I noticed that there were small insects rising out of the lawn, and into the sky. The dragonflies were feasting on them. It was very similar to the hatch that occurs in a stream or lake. The nymphs rise from the bottom, and transform themselves into mayflies. The trout go into a feeding frenzy that sometimes makes the water look like it is boiling. This is the first time I've ever observed this phenomenon with dragonflies.

chime

Cloudy. Back from a long weekend on Martha's Vineyard. There is nowhere I know that epitomizes summer like that place. The Crowley's cabin is full of quirky bedrooms, porches, and screened doors. It's the only place I've ever been in my life where I've heard the ring of wind chimes located INSIDE the house.

obsession

Went out to look at the most beautiful wildflower in Vermont last night, the Cardinal Flower, out in its usual haunts in the West Rutland swamp. I was talking to Erin about my "interest" in wildflowers. I said I didn't think obsession was the right word. She said, "Oh, I think it is." Anyway, having an ongoing interest in a facet of the natural world allows for the seeing of things that might otherwise be missed. As Hericlitus said, "Nature loves to hide."
It is comforting to be able to return to the same places at the same time of year, and see the same wildflowers as before. There have been a couple of times this year, however, when that didn't happen as planned. I was walking by the railroad tracks on the way to the Mall the other day. I looked for the Canada Lily I had seen there roughly a year ago, but it wasn't there. I remember all of the Enchanter's Nightshade I had seen out front last year. Now it's nowhere to be found. Why is that? Do they bloom every other year? Seems unlikely. What are the factors that led to the disappearances?
There are a few "hot spots" I visit every few weeks. It's interesting to see colonies of one type of flower replaced by colonies of another flower in basically the same place. It reminds me of the gates at a busy airport which are used by a number of airplanes at various times of the day. That way, it seems, mother nature is able to promote the greatest diversity of flora in the exact same space. It always pays to share.

explosion

Cloudy. Walking by the bird feeder over by production the other day, lost in thought. Explosion of bird seed in front of me on the walkway as the squirrels and/or blue jays quickly depart.

cherry cola

Cloudy. Lots of campers & trailers with out of state plates on Rte. 7 in Rutland. It's vacation season. Erin is arriving today! Unloading the paper & black birch in the back yard. The latter smells like cherry cola which is my soda of choice at this time of year. Apparently the yellow jackets like it, too as they buzz around the wood pile.

apples

Cloudy. Apples maturing on the trees at home. Crabapples very sparse on the tree at work. I remember the killing freeze in May. High school students running early in the mornings. Getting ready for fall sports. Starting to cut up wood for winter, and pile it on the lawn in the back.

thistles

A sunny weekend. Queen Anne's Lace, Teasel, Joe Pye Weed, and Touch Me Nots appearing along the roadsides. The wildflower Tear Thumb discovered about 50 yards from the house, jeez. Ads for the Vermont State Fair appearing. Thistles ripening, and so the goldfinches and butterflies which feed on them are more prominent.