It's dark again when I get up in the morning, and the angle of light during the day is lower. We're still in high summer but fall is not far off.
We've had a memorable season: extreme amounts of rain means the lawn in August is growing like it's April. It seems like butterfly numbers have been low here too but just in the last week we're starting to see them more. It seems likely that the cool wet weather slowed their development. Finally we're getting our first tomatoes in the garden, almost a month late.
The multitudes of young American toads we normally see in summer have been mostly absent; I guess I'm seeing 10% of what we've had in the past. But I've seen tadpoles in flooded puddles even as late as this week.
Owen and I go for walks in the evenings; for someone who is almost 12 months old he's remarkably tolerant of me stopping to take pictures.
Showy tick-trefoil (Desmodium canadense) is now starting to bloom along wooded roadsides. This is the plant that will have triangular seeds with tiny spines that stick to your clothing as you pass; if you're not careful you'll spend the evening picking them off.
We also came across bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) growing along a nearby roadside. This is a state noxious weed—it is aggressive in disturbed agricultural fields. Bees and goldfinches make use of it.
