Early morning work in summer yields beauty

Ginkgo tree planted in memory of the Sandy Hook school victims always looks majestic, and it’s not even that old yet.

In the summer when it’s hot, we meet at six am to work and leave at three when it’s unbearably hot.

I get up at 4:30am, make the coffee, read the news, get dressed, let the cat in, and skedaddle off to toil. It’s not fun.

I do have to admit, though, that once I’m dressed and moving about and my eyes are working again, I can see.

I mean REALLY SEE why people live in the south in winter, and return in the spring. Connecticut is BEAUTIFUL. I find it most beautiful at strange times of the day and night. When it’s hot as hell, I find only misery in being outdoors.

When I got to work, this view met me around 5:45am. Birds singing like Pavarotti. Heavy fog burning off minute by minute. Silhouettes of big Norway spruce trees lined up and spaced out in an orderly fashion.

I headed out back to start working and couldn’t help taking this picture. So damn beautiful!

A scraggly weed caught my eye. I looked more carefully at it and realized that I had driven past it hundreds of times without introducing myself. I remembered that I had just uploaded a plant ID app on my phone, and used it for the very first time this morning.

Look closely, and you will see why I took the time to bother. I saw a certain beauty in this little weed. The opening blossoms were lilacky-lavender, opening to white with a yellow center. Petals of a miniature “she loves me, she loves me not” fashion.

Now, THIS is what I’ve been preaching about for years! THIS is why leaving a little extra time in life for observation of surroundings is good for you. This little weed made me happy, and soon I would know it’s name.

Glossy leafed aster is a plant that is native to the east coast, lives in wetlands, grows from two to seven feet. Some of you must be thinking that I need a straight jacket, yet I can assure you that I don’t need one (just like the narrator in Poe’s “Telltale Heart”). Since I know most cultivated horticultural plants by sight, common and scientific names, appreciating non-cultivated plants is entirely natural, and I see beauty and value in stuff most other people see right through.

I bring this up for some of you who hike, walk, bike... keep your eyes open, and get insect/bird song/plant ID apps on your phones. What you find might bring more meaning to your life. That’s what happened to me this morning. Now, I want to bring these plants home and plant them somewhere when I install my wildflower area (replacing a section of lawn). Glossy leafed aster, glad I met you!

My toil proceeded into the daylight hours and the insects awoke. Asclepias Incarnata (yet again worming it’s fragrant beautiful flowers onto my blog) providing breakfast for this wasp of some kind.

Ever since I started seeing value in insects, I’ll see one like this and wonder who it is. I don’t have an insect ID app yet, but when I do, I’ll be able to know the name of critters like this one. Most people see a stinging “bug.”

I see a complex, sophisticated organism who eats something, and in turn gets eaten by something else. It visits the nursery for breakfast then goes away to raise its young. If mankind wished to create an organism like this one, we couldn’t. It’s part of the web of life, as we are.

Link to article:

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/wasps/scoliid_wasps.htm


In the whole scheme of things, who cares what that insect is? Well, I guess I do. I just find myself wondering more and more about my surroundings lately, and I find my outdoor life more interesting when I’m more knowledgeable about stuff. Maybe you will too.

Ok, I went to work this am and took a few more pics:

This waspy insect on our Veronica caught my eye. I put it through the app and this is what it is!

This is the result of the app...