And the nature magic continues...

The insect chorus hums as I write and I am keenly aware of the shifting of the sun southward. We are celebrating the fall equinox and it hardly seems possible. This summer filled us up with warmth and beauty and dried us up with drought. We are tired of watching plants wither before they normally would, but we remain steadfast in our hope that rain will return.

Some of the beauty we lived and loved on our little patch of Earth must be shared so here is my late summer post written for each of you and as a reminder for me. Thanks as always for sharing in our lives.

Eastern Wahoo (Euonymus atropurpureus) flowers wowed us with their purple color....a subtle prelude to their orange seeds and pink capsules.

Swamp aster or bristly aster (Symphyotrichum puniceum) is magnificent - probably my favorite aster, though how can I pick? The richness of New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) even amidst the drought drops me to my knees in awe. Her purple flowers opened up even as all her leaves fell off and the swamp aster said goodbye much ahead of time. This resiliency supports our spirits and the migrating monarchs in such an important and needed way.

Planting False Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa), an excellent bee plant, made me take an up close look at the nitrogen fixing nodules of leguminous plants. This bacterial/plant relationship is pretty freakin' cool. Plants always wow me, I mean really. I've said it before - chlorophyll, making your own food in your body - how do you top that?

This fascination and all the relationships is, of course, why we grow the plants we do...

and create the sacred space we do. Yes sacred. How can it be anything else? See for yourself:

Gray treefrog resting on cup plant...

Monarchs feasting on common milkweed in our lean-to greenhouse...

Saddleback caterpillar feasting on staghorn sumac...

Crocus geometer moth...

Carpenter bee nectaring on swamp milkweed...

Laurel sphinx...

Spined micrathena web and female...

American plum fruit (so delicious and the only one produced this year)...

Tiger swallowtail nectaring on obedient plant...

Large maple spanworm resting on native lettuce...

Spotted apatelodes caterpillar munching...

(For more on this sacredness, read Mary Oliver's Winter Hours page 107 and 108.)

Winter comes every year and is on the way so we prepared this summer by: 

planting hardy greens,

stacking by-product firewood,

and this year, working with our cats to help them like one another and get ready to travel for a little winter journey to a warmer and sunnier land...

The light around us this time of year beams, twirls and swirls and lights us on fire. It's often in my daydreams and nightdreams; Steve says I am a photon. My dream, I say! I come to life in the radiance of that magnificent celestial being so I played with this photo and made it show the magic I felt in the light watching these sawtooth sunflowers (Helianthus grosseserratus).

The summer magic culminated in the green darner migration through Ohio, which was absolutely phenomenal and landed us on our rear ends for hours amidst the plants watching the thousands of winged lives zipping about eating up mosquitoes, gnats and flying ants.

This pileated woodpecker feather we found on a hike reminded me, once again, there is so much life around, not always or often seen, but still there and breathing (or not) and living and going about life just like I am. The connection we all share with this world is deep and wide and to feel it, all we need to do is pay attention.

Don't miss all our weekly You Tube videos highlighting this beauty.

Till next time my friends, we wish you much love, hope and resiliency! 

P.S. Strange Trails by Lord Huron - I find I can't get enough of this music. I love it and for a folk music girl, it's an unusual allegiance. Also, this. "When the ocean drinks the sky and the city winks its eye." "I hear the river say your name." This language is what does it, I suppose. Do you love music too? Please share your favorites.