June 19: Office music

Turn off Pandora.
A robin shares his music
all afternoon.

June 18: Burgeoning

Under the raindrops
peonies bow tousled heads,
perfume the cleansed air.

June 17: Thunder

Thunderstorm rolled through this afternoon. You could feel the tension in the air before the sky began to rumble, then the release of rain.

Roll up car windows.
Phoebe says its name, frantic,
as thunder rumbles.

June 16: Road-kill

Driving on 295 to Portland today for a Sea Dogs game. A good time had by all, and yet...

We didn't talk about
the roadside dead deer
but it haunted me all day.

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

June 14: Schoodic

Spent the night at the Schoodic Research & Education Center (SERC) to attend an evening presentation by Scott Weidensaul--who's written the best book I've ever read on bird migration, Living on the Wind--and to participate in a program there. Stayed up much too late after the presentation talking with friends.

Up late talking with friends.
By the time I went to bed
the moon had set.

June 12: Lilacs

Out of my reach

the highest blossoms

are the only ones not yet brown.

June 11: Shrew

We came home last night to find a dead rodent deposited in the middle of our front lawn. Perhaps it was meant as a gift to our cat, an indoor cat who tries her best to interact through the window with all the neighborhood cats--as well as birds, bugs, etc.--outside.

We looked it up in our mammal field guide: Short-tailed Shrew. I picked it up by its short tail and gently laid it under the ferns at the edge of the lawn, for it to hopefully be found and carried off in the night. The field guide tells us that this shrew has a poisonous bite, a surprising defense for such a minuscule creature.

Intact but dead shrew--
sacrifice for the cat gods,
those merciless ones?

June 10: Mown

I mow the back yard only a few times a season, generally preferring to let the ferns and wildflowers flourish. Yesterday was a mowing day, and at least one creature besides myself seemed grateful for the shorn grass.

While I watch from inside
single crow calmly
picks through mown lawn's stubble.

June 9: Pear

Home alone doing the Sunday Times crossword on a grey, chilly morning.

I admire how
a single ripe pear
fills the bright orange bowl.

June 8: Thinking about a friend who's dying

After the rain stopped
cardinal flew through the yard
and back again.