Summer blahs?
Nah . . .
As tempting as it is to join my fellow Iowans’ rants about our steamy summer weather, I’m trying to stay positive.
What follows are examples of July’s DELIGHTS that surround us if we stop to savor them.
Just wishing I could post the sweet aroma of a patch of common milkweed that we leave for monarch butterflies. (Sorry, Dad! I know you insisted on cutting all the milkweeds when we walked the beanfields!)
Likewise, you’ll have to imagine the distant rumbles of thunder that I was unable to record.
And the muted, post-breeding chorus of bird songs that floats over our prairie in the evening – a sharp contrast to the May symphony, when everybody is on territory to proclaim their dominion over their nesting sites
We see deer of all sexes and ages nibbling the new growth of our prairie plants, lurking in the cooler shadows on the woods, or munching the neighbor’s soybeans.
Look carefully! The fawns grow fast – but not as fast as the big bluestem that’s already stretching above their backs.
Dusk brings out the fireflies – or “lightning bugs.” Where do they go during the day? Likely right in front of our noses, with lights turned off so they blend in with their surrounding
Summer storms dance across the radar screen – and on the horizon - as we watch and listen
The rains may – or may not – come in torrents. Will we get the gentle soaker that the garden needs, or the downpour that fills the road ditches?
Our prairie is bejeweled with summer blooms: purple prairie clover, rattlesnake master, butterfly milkweed, compassplant, false indigo, pale purple coneflowers, wild bergamot.
Some young birds have fledged and become independent, while others – like teenage red-headed woodpeckers - still beg for food from their compliant parents.
Don’t just fret by the air conditioner! Get outside to experience our fellow beings!
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Hi Larry, your photos can't be beat, and your commentary is so spot on. Love your common milkweed flower photo. Have you noticed how tall they are this year. Good rain, I guess. We have a forest of common milkweed stalks in front of the house in Coralville. The scent is driving the monarchs in from all over Johnson County, I think!! What an incredible plant to be respected, not eliminated. Also, your photo of elderberry flowers, like the milkweed flower are worthy of a college botany class to discuss floral anatomy, what beauty in a flower!!! Keep on trucking.... best .... Bill.
Iowa is not blah, nor is it boring. You just need what airline pilots call “situational awareness.”