season of yellow

I know I've said this before, but one of the results of doing a blog like this is that you become more aware of what is disappearing in the natural world as well as what is appearing. The morning calls of the songbirds have essentially disappeared. The birdsongs are gone even if the songbirds remain. For many of them, the need to establish their own territories has gone away for the season.
The exception is the American Goldfinch. I understand that they are the latest species to produce young during the summer season. It is assumed that it has something to do with the late maturation of their primary sources of food, thistles, mullein and the like. They are a vibrant, energetic species, and the bright yellow plumage complements the ragweed, evening primrose, and others wildflowers during this late summer season of yellow.

August in Vermont

blossoms to seeds

There is a time when the blossoms of spring and early summer turn into the seeds of late summer and fall. That time has arrived. Red conical seed pods of the sumac are appearing. Goldfinches are gathering around the thistles in fields and pastures. When I got up this morning, there was the sound of something thumping to the ground in the front yard. I had no idea what it was and went to investigate. It was the sound of pine cones falling to the ground.

crickets

Yesterday Dave Chambers brought the tractor and the brush hog over per usual. What was not usual was that he gave me a lesson on how to use it, and I mowed a couple of fields myself. I had told them that with my retirement, I have time for that now. It was very satisfying, like stacking wood for winter. Sitting on top of the tractor offered opportunities to observe the world around me. Dragonflies gathering in the fields. They look like a squadron of WWII bombers. Sound of crickets and grasshoppers in the evening.

From the bough floating down the river, insect song.
Issa

Vermont

Yesterday I drove from Montreal to Springfield to Rutland. Haven't been on that 89/91 stretch for a long time. Driving through the heart of the Green Mountains, past the Winooski, White, and Ct. rivers on a sunny day in August, can't help but realize what a beautiful state this is.

Joe Pye Weed

Wildflowers are beautiful, but some of their names are not; bastard toadflax, cow vetch. Some of the names are as compelling as the flowers themselves. I've always liked the name Joe Pye Weed. Sounds like something out of a Mark Twain novel. Then there's Queen Anne's Lace, you can't to much better than that.

trips

Making some trips around the property with Eliza on foot and in the truck. We found some blackberries yesterday (she calls them black-blueberries). She gobbled them up. Day before yesterday we found some actual blueberries. Didn't know we had any on our property.