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.