summer

Summer red

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Our summer this year is best represented by the color red. These lovely coneflowers are a perfect representation – the full impact of summer’s heat and the warm colors that we associate with it. We jumped from our late and short spring of blues and greens into the heat and drought of summer. The Canadian wildfire smoke has been prevalent here. The usual clear and blue skies have been hazy and murky. The sun rises as a red and orange ball, sometimes barely visible , while the landscape takes on an eerie feeling where things aren’t as they seem.

And there’s the red of watermelon – a summer staple. Take a slice, bite into it, savor that taste of the summer months as the juices drip down your arms. And strawberries too, which are at their sweet peak right now providing a delicious burst when popped in your mouth. There’s red in our US flag representing hardiness and valor, and it’s sometimes said it also represents the blood of the men and women who have fought to protect our freedom and our country. A huge and heartfelt thanks to those people, and a happy 4th of July to all my US friends! Enjoy this carefree time of summer!

The fleeting time of peonies

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Here in Minnesota we have experienced an unusually short spring season and have quickly moved into the summer season. Our temperatures jumped from temperate to “just plain hot” quickly, and with that it seems everything has bloomed and blossomed at the same time. The lilacs came and went. Daffodils, tulips, poppies, iris, and peonies all burst into bloom together. It’s been beautiful and yet it’s also been overwhelming, and it seems that it’s now all gone.

But the peonies have always had a fleeting time of bloom. Their greenery grows rapidly once the snow is gone and the sun warms the ground. The tight buds form, then start to show color, and then the ants are seen all over the buds. Peonies provide sugar and compounds that the ants need, and the ants benefit the peonies by keeping other potential invaders away from the blooms. This year the early heat with temperatures in the upper 80’s and even 90’s seemed to shorten the already fleeting peony bloom. I felt like I needed to harvest as many flowers as I could to bring inside and out of the intense heat, hoping to give them a chance of lingering a bit longer. The benefit to me is it allowed me to savor their beauty and their scent so much more.

A biking adventure on the Katy Trail

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We’ve just returned from a six-day biking adventure on the Katy Trail in central Missouri. The Katy Trail State Park was opened in 1990 and is the longest continuous rail trail in the United States at 240 miles. It was built along the rail route of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) Railroad, and was commonly called the Katy. The trail itself is crushed limestone, and after riding six days with no rain we found we were covered in a light coating of dust! Many miles of the trail follow the route of the Missouri River with large limestone bluffs towering above the river. We learned much about the history of the area via trail markers telling us of Lewis & Clark’s travels along this route, and information about Daniel Boone and his family who once lived in the region.

We took spur trails into Jefferson City and Hermann, giving us easy access to food and lodging. In other places, like Sedalia and St. Charles, the trail passed right through the commercial areas. We found old train depots and a multitude of bridges of various types. We rode along cornfields and under canopies of trees. We saw cardinals flying across the trail and turtles slowly working their way from one side to the other. With a light wind we could smell the honeysuckle blooming nearby. It’s a popular trail that is shared by cyclists, walkers, and even horses.

Like other cross-state rides we’ve done, it was the perfect way to see the countryside and appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of the area.

Late summer asters

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Summer has begun its wind-down. The daylight hours are dwindling, the sun is lower in the sky, the leaves are drying, and some of the birds have already begun their journeys elsewhere. Our colors are starting their change to the deep reds and oranges of fall. So I set out in search of a “last” color of summer and found these Lindley’s asters blooming with their final hurrah, valiantly reaching up to the sun’s warmth. With our lowering night-time temperatures they too will soon be fading into fall’s colors.

Standing tall

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Slowly our summer season is coming to a close. The hours of sunlight are diminishing each day, the nights are cooler, and the landscape is losing its green lushness.

Walking in a field the other day I noticed the remainders of what had once been blooming dandelions. Their colors were gone and their skeletons stood tall above the other drying vegetation. Here they seemed proud of their intricate structure and proud of having survived the recent winds. There was no way to know how much longer the remaining blossom stems and seed would remain intact – a few hours, a day, a week – and yet they made a statement to me of resilience and beauty.