You are now ready for Halloween. Go forth and get candy! |
You are now ready for Halloween. Go forth and get candy! |
Song for Autumn, by Mary Oliver
Don't you imagine the leaves dream now
how comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of wind? And don't you think
the trees, especially those with
mossy hollows, are beginning to look for
the birds that will come -- six, a dozen -- to sleep
inside their bodies? And don't you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
stiffens and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its long blue shadows. The wind wags
its many tails. And in the evening
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.
In the event that the eastern tailed blue butterfly cannot fulfill its duties, the runner-up, shown here, will step in. Let's hear it for the two-spotted scoliid wasp. Yay! |
Here's a photo with different lighting on different flowers. See where it gets its common name? |
How about a few humerus jokes? What, for instance, is half the diameter of a skeletal circle? |
The radius! Click to enlarge. |
And these guys. Looks like they know how to eat, drink, and be scary. I'll bet the food at that place is served on bone china. Do you suppose they'll pay the bill with cryptocurrency? Bone appétit! |
Do you know what a spider with 20 eyes is called? A spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiider. |
And do you know what spiders eat in Paris? French flies! |
Finally, and perhaps not soon enough -- do you know what the last skeleton on Earth would be called? The end-o-skeleton. :-) |
Today is the first day of autumn. This is the best leaf I have found so far. |
Me too! I'll be taking a walk in the woods today, to celebrate autumn and Hobbit Day, hoping for an adventure, and with, as Bilbo used to sing: "morning mists and silver sun and wind upon my hair." |
If it's September, it's time to visit the New Jersey Pine Barrens to look for the rare and lovely pine barrens gentian flower, Gentiana autumnalis. Behold a beauty from last year. |
I went for a long walk in the fine fall like weather this week and I found some. They were just beginning to open. |
Not a problem because I am also a big fan of the buds. They remind me of Tiffany vases. Here is a rare pink one. Click to enlarge. |
This one is on the verge of opening. |
Opening even more. |
And here is the most open gentian I found. Very promising, right? |
Before long they will be open in all their glory like this one that I photographed in a past year. I hope to get out there again in time to witness it. |
Meanwhile, here is a quote that I see myself in from Given Poems, Sabbath II, Wendell Berry. You could too. |
"I dream of a quiet man
who explains nothing and defends
nothing, but only knows
where the rarest wildflowers
are blooming, and who goes,
and finds that he is smiling