berry

In the dark forest
A berry drops.
The sound of water.
Shiki

Gone for a week.

mist

Breakfast at Sissy's in Middletown Springs. Then a hike in the rain at the Taconics Mountain Ramble State Park.

Went to the sitting at the Zen Center in the evening. The nearly full moon and the planet Mars guided me home through the mist. Another full day.

season of zucchini

The season of zucchini has started. Got my first two from a friend at the United Way yesterday. My grandson, Clarkie, was chewing on one this morning when he was watching Daniel Tiger.

summer

Yesterday we took a hike from Thundering Brook Falls in Killington to Kent Pond and back. Jewelweed, Swamp Candle, Depford Pink, and Spreading Dogbane in bloom. Saw many of the spring ephemerals deep in the forest. The blossoms of May have become the berries of July; red, green and white. In the evening, we went to a performance of West Side Story at the Weston Playhouse. Vermont is a pretty nice place to be this time of the year.

jewelweed

favorites

Queen Annes Lace

Some wildflowers have horrible names: bastard toadflax, cow vetch!? Sheesh. Some of the names are intriguing, compelling, even beautiful. St. John's Wort, Joe Pye Weed, Queen Anne's Lace appearing. Some of my favorite names.

Heads up. I was heading south last night about 10. Saw something very bright and red in the southwest. I thought it must be a plane. It was the planet Mars which is currently the brightest it will ever be in your lifetime. Definitely worth a look.

Joe Pye Weed

St. John's Wort

Saturn!

Clear skies and a new moon last night. Friends and family wanted to do some star gazing. Hauled out a new (for me) telescope and quickly aligned the finder, and waited in the dark for the audience to arrive from bowling. Fireflies twinkling in the dark, deer snorting at me from a nearby pasture. A perfect night.

I was able to find most, not all, of the sights I was looking for: Jupiter and the four visible moons, the Ring Nebula, Hercules star cluster, the double star Albiero, M22 in the constellation Sagittarius. I've spent a lot of time viewing objects in Sagittarius over the years. When looking at it last night there was an object above the constellation that I didn't remember being there. I knew it wasn't Venus because that had set earlier in the evening. Jupiter was also setting in the west. Couldn't be Mars because it wasn't pink enough. I figured it had to be Saturn, and it was! We got a great view of it. Everyone had fun. Anyone who has any interest in the natural world should look through a telescope at least once in their life.

American Linden

Last week we attended a family reunion in Ohio. All along the thruways between here and there I noticed flowering trees of some kind. It kind of looked like black cherry, but was too late in the season for that. Yesterday I was working with a consultant on a stream bank project here, and noticed one of the flowing trees on my own property. I asked him if he knew what it was and he said it's a basswood tree. He said they flower late in the season and are pollinated by bees. For those of you who are interested, here is some more information.

http://forestry.ohiodnr.gov/basswood

The basswood has other names one of which is American Linden. I have one of those!

season

It's been very hot in Vermont the last few days. Temperatures in the 90's. Season of iced coffee and popsicles. Gone for a week.

Veery

When you live on the other side of the creek, going for take out isn't the usual experience. Recently I headed to Sissy's to pick up dinner. When driving through a wooded gorge between Ira and Middletown Springs, I heard the call of a veery. It's always reminded me of Pan, playing on his pipes from somewhere deep in the forest. It's Doug's favorite bird call.