June 3: Weeding

weeding the garden

which flowers live

and which die

July 25: Meditation

Among the flowers

bees and a skipper.

No politics tonight, dear.

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July 9: Rainy garden series

Visited the beautiful Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay this morning, despite persistent drizzle. The paths were less crowded than usual, and the colors and scents of the summer blooms seemed more vivid in the rain.

standing just so
under the flowering dogwood
fragrant pink sky

atop the weathervane
trilling junco
this garden is his

crouching down
so the lavender's eye-level,
I imagine fields full

Star of Persia allium
blown-out blooms
fireworks above the ferns

rain on rose petals
all-natural rosewater
flush of memory

June 5: Rhododendrons

Spent the morning at the exquisite Asticou Azalea Garden and was reminded again why I love rhododendrons so much.

 

Grandmother's rhododendron--

I hide underneath

protected by bees.

 

 

 

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April 20: Magnolia

Walking to the pub

stopped in my tracks by perfume--

flowers overhead.

 

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April 16: Spring night

At the end of a long drive:

chorus of peepers,

stars bright as flowers.

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March 10: Snowdrops

No snow but snowdrops

shining amid last year's leaves--

remembered promise.

 

 

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December 14: Purple

On the compost pile

uprooted kale, bright purple

almost a flower

 

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November 14: After the terrorist attacks in Paris

Un vent froid du nord.
Je pense aux trottoirs de Paris
entasses avec des fleurs.

June 7: Viburnum

Out the bedroom window
tiny white faces
of unexpected flowers.

August 7: Goldenrod

First glow of goldenrod--

the field shifts to gold,

summer's mood downshifts.

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July 17: In the milkweed patch

Patch of milkweed--
bees also pause to enjoy
the fragrant beauty.

May 21: Trillium

Led a bird walk this morning for Coastal Mountains Land Trust at the Ducktrap River Preserve: drumming grouse, gobbling turkeys, warblers, and spring's early wildflowers--which are as much a joy to see again as the birds.

While birds sing above,

faces of old friends

shine on the forest floor.

Painted Trillium

Red Trillium

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May 20: Violets

When I was a child, my grandmother, whom I called Nana Ruth or Nan, would send me out in spring to pick a bouquet of white violets from the lawn. That was my thing. A fistful fit perfectly in a special little vase she had.

 

I can't mow the lawn--

the masses of white violets

remind me of Nan.

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April 5: Snowdrops

Snowdrops--barely higher
than the frozen leaf litter.
And yet, flowers!

March 16: Forced forsythia

Forced or freed?

Forsythia bough blooms

in the spring of our kitchen.

 

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July 11: Ripening and blooming

This morning I had to laugh as a catbird emphatically "chuck-chuck chuck-chuck'ed" in the blueberry bush, staring at the hard green berries as if willing them to ripen. 

Later, at home, I collected a shirt full of cherry tomatoes from my hanging tomato plant, warmed by the sun and so sweet when popped in my mouth. Meanwhile, many of the flowers in my garden are in bloom or ready to bloom--the deep orange Embers of Vesuvius day lily is loaded with long buds, and the echinacea patch looks about ready to unfurl its petals and show its many faces.

Catbird and I, both

impatient for blueberries

just now blushing pink.

June 15: Little Moose Island, Schoodic

Spent the morning on Schoodic Point in Acadia National Park. The tide was low, so we were able to walk over to Little Moose Island on an exposed natural causeway. I was with three botanists, so learned a lot about the plant life: the male Roseroot Sedum has yellow flowers and the female has red; what we call juniper "berries" are actually tiny cones; and Xanthoria lichens do not just grow where rodents have urinated...

Even sea-scoured
bare granite harbors flowers,
blooms of lichen.

Blue Flag & Xanthoria lichen

Bunchberry and gull feather

Cinquefoil? tucked in granite

Roseroot Sedum

Xanthoria lichen rings

Roseroot Sedum and Blue Flags

May 25: Flowering trees

Drive around now and everywhere white and pink flowering apple, cherry, and crabapple trees shine amid the surrounding green leaves, veritable clouds of flowers. Up close, the rain has released their redolent fragrances, each tree its own bottle of fresh spring perfume. Old apple trees appear in the most unexpected places, reminding us of a forest's former life as a field. And even the dullest front lawn is transformed by the presence of one tree in bloom.

Petals scattered by rain--
sidewalk a black canvas
for spring's wild art.

May 12: After the rain

The rain prevented my mother and I from taking a post-Mother's Day brunch walk this morning, but it stopped in time for my husband and I to get in a pre-dinner walk this evening. As we walked around the neighborhood, each house gave off its own odor: woodsmoke from those trying to take the edge off the evening chill; cigarette smoke from some; the scent of damp crabapple blossoms from others; and the fragrance of mown grass from many.

Wet, scattered petals
and sodden clumps of cut grass.
The calm of settling dusk.