flowers fall

 Flowers fall despite our longing.

Weeds rise up despite our loathing.

Dogen

three things

 Zen pretty much comes down to three things--everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.

Jane Hirshfield

Zen page-a-day calendar

This blog pretty much comes down to these same things.

Flowers of summer

 The spring ephemeral season is mostly over but the season of wildflowers in Vermont is just beginning.I remember when Allyn and I first came to Vermont back in the early 70's, actually before we were married. It was the wildflowers that made the biggest impact on me. Growing up in California, I had never seen anything like it.

Common fleabane

 

Buttercups

Golden Alexander

Dames Rocket

Celandine

Forget-me-not

 

All these wildflowers have a different quality. They are the flowers of summer. They are not found in forests, but along roadsides and in pastures. Many of them last all summer long rather than just for a few weeks.

 

sun-dappled

 Lilacs blossoming all over Vermont.

Trees are almost fully leafed out, and with their return comes sun-dappled country roads.

A sure sign of summer in Vermont.

Happiness

 The Green Mountain State is very green right now.

Goldfinches and Tiger Swallowtails flying from here to there; flashes of yellow and black.

 old photo from flickr

Lily of the Valley along the lane.

Sound of crickets coming out of the darkness on a warm evening.

 

Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness.

Chuang Tzu 

Zen page-a-day calendar

Doug and friends

 Sound of the veery from deep in the woods. 

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=veery+thrush+call&t=ffnt&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DcK1gaTqBRRk

This is Doug's favorite bird call and it is beautiful, almost as beautiful as the wood thrush. Sometime during this year of the pandemic, we were talking about the plant Jack in the pulpit. Doug taught me something that I had never been sufficiently curious about. How did it come to have that name? Here's what my book Wildflowers of Vermont has to say.

"Green and purple striped hooded tube (spathe) growing between large 3-part leaf.

Within the tube is Jack (spadix), like a preacher in the pulpit. 

 

 

Jacks and their pulpits become clubs of shiny scarlet berries. Native"

I had never bothered to open up the hood to look for "Jack" underneath. Thanks Doug!

emerging

 Foxes have pups and are very active this time of year. There is a den just off the West Road where we often see foxes on the morning walk. Also seeing hummingbirds, and a pair of Baltimore Orioles. The orioles are a species that grab my attention. When I see an oriole, everything stops. Asparagus and rhubarb emerging. Had some asparagus for dinner last night.

A whole string of them

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWDyA4S-geg

sorry

 Sorry, forgot to attribute Izen's poem to Zen page-a-day calendar.

not plums but red

 

These flowers of the plum

how red, how red they are,

how red, how red

Izen

beautiful

 We were just starting out on our morning walk when I heard it, the sound of a thrush. I think it was a wood thrush, but it might have been a hermit thrush. I haven't heard one for years. It was very reassuring.

https://youtu.be/mcR6XrnD7Yc

This is from the Macaulay library.

As far as I'm concerned, it's one of the most beautiful sounds of the summer.

transition

 Trees are leafing out, but there are still some of the spring ephemerals to be seen on forest floors.

Dutchman's Breeches

White Trillium

The wildflower season is just getting started, but from now on, most will be found along roadsides, in pastures and wet places.

Marsh Marigolds

mayflies

 Walking the crossroads over the weekend and saw some mayflies. I'm always happy to see them. My experience with mayflies is that they're like birthdays, they happen every year, but only for one day. They are even more evanescent than the spring ephemerals which are around for a couple of weeks at least. Everything about mayflies is delicate, the way they look, the way they fly.

MDC Discover Nature

They live on the bottoms of lakes and streams in the form of nymphs. At the appointed time, they rise to the surface and float along for a short time until they can take flight. Someone once described mayflies as "strawberry shortcake" for trout. The frenzied activity of trout rising to a mayfly hatch is, in and of itself, one of the phenomena from the natural world that is amazing to experience. I vividly remember the first time I saw trout feeding during a hatch. It was when I was a young boy fishing with my father in Wyoming. We were fishing with worms so it was pretty frustrating. Wikipedia says that "the German engraver Albrecht Durer included a mayfly in his 1495 engraving The Holy Family and the Mayfly to suggest a link between heaven and earth. I can't top that.

ordinary

 Grader smoothing out the rough spots from mud season on the Crossroads. Huge farm trucks hauling fertilizer on the roads. Mowing the lawn for the first time of the year, white and purple violets appearing there, along with the wild strawberries.

Winter tires to summer tires. Dandelions. Fisherman wading in a clear mountain stream.

There are no shortcuts to Heaven, only the ordinary way of ordinary things.

Vincent McNabb

Zen Page-a-Day calendar

flowers return

 Flowers and blossoms continue their return.

This includes the shad trees, one of the few blossoming trees endemic to our area.

 And rumor has it that my friend, Weezie, has returned to the north country where she belongs. Welcome back, Weezie!

Green Up Day

 Green Up Day on Saturday. 23 people came out to clean the roads. 35 degrees and snow falling. First time I've worn long johns to this event.

It was heart warming to see all the work that went into it. Ira, Vermont is a backwater. There's not much going on here. All we have is birds and flowers, mountains and rivers; and a strong sense of community.