Category: Summer

Where Rabbits Run and Humans Walk and Reflect

More late summer images from Wachusett Meadow.

Eastern Cottontail Rabbits have proliferated this year at the Meadow.

Raised-Lettering on signs, as well as an audio informational program available at the visitors center, allow the visually impaired to more fully experience the meadow along the All Persons Trail.
The North Meadow is a popular easy hiking area.

Cattails in the North Meadow are vivid harbingers of fall.
A section of the All Persons Trail leads to the South Meadow.
Bas relief sculptures aid in identifying tree and barn swallows.
Visitors to the All Persons Trail can greet Wachusett’s endearing sheep on the way to the South Meadow…
…and then continue on to a sunny resting spot .

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

To refresh and renew the front yard, combine seeds and plant cuttings collected last fall with duct tape and spray paint.

Duct tape strengthens the old resin chair, while “spring green” spray paint lends a pop of color to the furniture.
Last fall’s coleus cuttings have taken off in the recent wet weather.
Inside or outside, the succulent green kalanchoe flourishes.
Six cosmos seeds saved from last year go a long way to enliven this year’s flower bed!
Scarlet Runner bean seeds are easy to dry, and never fail in succeeding years.
Bright bean flowers are magnets for a variety of birds and insects.
Last year’s nasturtium seeds have bloomed yet again.
The “outdoor living room” under the hemlocks is a cool and breezy place to chat with friends and neighbors.

Rock Harbor Haze

Even as far back as early May, the effects of the Nova Scotia wildfires could be seen in the unusually orange evening skies on Cape Cod.

Rock Harbor, Orleans, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
From a distance what looks like a fisherman is actually a worker testing the water and soil quality of the harbor.

“A Chance of Showers and Thunderstorms”

That’s the weather forecast each day here in Central Massachusetts. As a result, this year’s garden is surely taking its time to grow!

This tomato variety is named Fourth of July, and promised tomatoes ready to eat by that date. Although they have a while to go, they are surely farther along than my other varieties.
Evening Primrose
The first Bee Balm to bloom.
Sweet 100 Tomatoes just flowering.
Calendula self-seeded from last year.
Hydrangea
Arugala (Second Planting)
Lady Bell Peppers
Blue Lake Pole and Bush Beans

Summer Sun

A variety of pollinators enjoyed my Buddleia (Butterfly Bush) in full bloom, as one of the resident rabbits watched the garlic harvest dry.

Eastern Swallowtail
Brown Swallowtail
Eastern Cottontail

Hardneck Garlic
Monarch
Silver-spotted Skipper

Iridescence

Glistening Ruby-throated hummingbirds will be heading south for the winter soon.

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary iridescence is:

1 : a lustrous rainbowlike play of color caused by differential refraction of light waves (as from an oil slick, soap bubble, or fish scales) that tends to change as the angle of view changes
2 : a lustrous or attractive quality or effect
The Ruby-throated hummingbird is found throughout Massachusetts during the warm months. This female paused on the branch of a nearby apple tree recently, providing me with a close-up of her luminous feathers.