Walking In Season – August 2011
Posted: 08/01/2011 Filed under: Nature, Photography, Walking in Season Leave a comment »August, that hot, bright, last month of summer. Everything slows in this month’s haze and heat. We retreat to the water, to the shade, to the cool of indoors. In the last lazy days of the season, we make time for afternoons with a cold drink and a good book, final trips to the shore or creek, easy weekend getaways with friends and family.
August, a month of ripening, both in the garden and in the wild. At the side of the road, farm stands are piled high. In kitchens, canners work overtime to preserve the bounty. In the woods and fields, fat seed pods mature on the stem. Here and there, asters begin to flash their gold and purple faces, harbingers of autumn.
August, a month of new beginnings. Back-to-school shopping, bright yellow buses, the first day of class. We never outgrow the thrill of new pencils and clean notebooks, do we?
By the end of the month, we sense a change afoot. One day, we open the door, breathe deeply, and feel it: an easing, a lifting. A shift. The heat and humidity are waning. Sunset finds us earlier and earlier. The turn of the season is on its way.
Below are this month’s Walking in Season photos, taken by Matt in the late evening. And, also as always, you can view the entire 1.5-year collection here or watch a slideshow here.
Happy August, everyone! (Fun fact: until a week before Bennett was born, the name “August” — a family name on both sides of our family — topped our baby boy names list!)
Stop 1: Evening wetland
Stop 1.5: Overgrown
Stop 2: Looks like some tent caterpillars have stricken the little tree on the right.
Stop 3: Soft evening light
Stop 3.5: Note the tree to the left of the path that is snapped in half…. must have been one of last month’s thunderstorms.
Stop 4: No drought this year.
July’s Moon
Posted: 07/14/2011 Filed under: Nature, Photography Leave a comment »
Today’s weather, a rare July gift. We give thanks for our open windows and the mild breeze wafting through them.
Tonight’s moon, the Ripe Corn Moon. We celebrate over those sweet kernels and the harvest delivering them!
* * *
Summertime is a beautiful time to step outside and set your gaze skyward. Enjoy that full moon, everyone.
Walking in Season – July 2011
Posted: 07/01/2011 Filed under: Nature, Walking in Season 2 Comments »A new moon brings us into July, this month of heavy heat, slow days, thundershower afternoons, stargazing nights. Fireworks, barbecues, reunion of families. Trips to the seashore, trips to the pool, trips to the lake. Long walks in the evening, long hikes in the cool of the mountains. Burgeoning gardens, first harvests, farmer’s market tables laden with homegrown goodness. Oh, what a month!
We walked the trail with Bennett this evening. We have three baby carriers (a ring sling, a Moby wrap, and an Ergo). Tonight we chose the sling, and about halfway through our journey, Bennett announced that at this stage, on long treks, only one carrier is allowed: the Moby. So, he and I had a good long snuggle, him in my arms, sans carrier, all the way home.
Below are this month’s Walking in Season photos, taken by Matt, as always. And, also as always, you can view the entire 1.5-year collection here or watch a slideshow here.
Enjoy your holiday weekend, U.S. friends! And savor this delicious month, all!
Stop 1. Verdant.
Stop 1.5. Blackberries soon!
Stop 2. The water is low.
Stop 3. Late evening light.
Stop 3.5. Is that invasive smartweed? Next time, I should check.
Stop 4. There’s a white egret in there, but she’s hard to see at this scale.
The Summer Day
Posted: 06/21/2011 Filed under: Nature, Poetry 5 Comments »A summer solstice favorite… Happy summer, everyone!
The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean –
the one who has flung herself out on the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down –
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
- Mary Oliver, House of Light (1990)
Like this:
Eclipse on the Strawberry Moon
Posted: 06/15/2011 Filed under: Motherhood, Nature Leave a comment »
Wow! A full Strawberry Moon tonight, and a extra-long lunar eclipse, too, for those lucky enough to live in South America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia! Plus, as an added bonus, tonight’s full moon will be very near its lowest possible position in the sky — see this article for details.
Happy moonwatching, everyone!
Of Red Mushrooms
Posted: 05/20/2011 Filed under: Motherhood, Nature, Photography, Watching | Tags: baby, bouncy chair, fungi, mushroom, red mushroom, video, Virginia 3 Comments »
After days of rain, fungi have begun popping up all around! This bright one pushed its way through the moss of our backyard overnight.
For quite a while, Bennett has been fixated on the red-capped mushroom on his activity bar (as this video taken a couple months ago attests). But the little guy above is his first glimpse of a real one!
Cicadas for Breakfast
Posted: 05/18/2011 Filed under: Nature, Photography Leave a comment »
This morning, we sat at the kitchen table and watched two blue herons (one shown here) up in the trees, enjoying a cicada breakfast. Quite a sight!
I didn’t dare venture outside for a better shot than this, as every time I do, the heron of interest flies off in a flash of grey-blue.
Cicada Moon
Posted: 05/17/2011 Filed under: Listening, Nature, Watching | Tags: cicadas, periodical cicadas, thirteen year, video, Virginia, Williamsburg Leave a comment »May’s full moon may be called the Flower Moon or Milk Moon by others, but to us, this year, it is the Cicada Moon! The 13-year periodical cicadas are in full troubadour mode, filling our neighborhood with the sound of their courting song (which is so loud, it has been mistaken for a car alarm or roaring generator by more than one Williamsburg resident).
Matt took the video above. In it, you can hear the cicadas’ mating call: one long, high, whirring note, sung all day long, audible even inside the house. And see those specks flitting between the tree leaves? Those are cicadas!
Ah, the sound of romance! And on the full moon, at that!
The Emergence
Posted: 05/10/2011 Filed under: Nature, Photography Leave a comment »
May arrived, and with it, the emergence of the 13-year periodical cicadas! The undersides of tree leaves — especially oaks, it seems, at least in our yard — are dappled with thousands of their molted skins. And, oh, their singing! All day long, the males whir, and we listen.
Along the trail, exciting things are afoot, as well. Yellow and purple swamp iris in the wetland… Mountain laurel in the understory… Blackberry bushes in flower… Sweet honeysuckle vines in bloom… Magnolia buds about to burst open!
And, in the animal world: egrets fishing, turtles sunning, and the appearance of two white-and-brown-splotched offspring of last year’s pinto deer!
First Campfire of the Season
Posted: 05/02/2011 Filed under: Nature, Photography Leave a comment »To poke a wood fire is more solid enjoyment
than almost anything else in the world.
- Charles Dudley Warner (1829-1900)
This weekend. A friend’s birthday. May Day Eve!
First barbecue of the season. First campfire of the season. First campfire of little B’s life!
Perfectly toasted marshmallows. Lots of laughter. No mosquitoes!
Warm. Sweet. Lovely!
