around and about

there is heavy rain in the forecast for tonight so on the way home from what passes for work these days i saw various types of farm machinery in the fields...i would wager this one is seeding a crop of dense yellow # 2 for future soda and hot pockets...

out in the front yard just off the deck the hawthorn tree is beginning to pop out blossoms and there is a distinct cloyingly sweet aroma out there...and the only insect i see vaguely interested is a fly...a bit disturbing...we could blame the incipient rain...what about tomorrow?

around back the concord grapes are blooming as well.. a bit more subdued than the hawthorn however...

a bush bean yesterday...

and the same plant today...nothing is static out there...the movement may be so slow as to be invisible at times but it is still there...it is a bit faster this time of year...

there is a volunteer spud escaping from the winter wheat bed and communicating with some of the new york imports in the east bed...

the row of containerized spuds, including the government ones, are moving tight along...

while this bison i started in the basement is showing signs of finishing up...

there is a lone volunteer winter rye plant out by the alfalfa and intermediate wheat grass that is ripening...

and some ears in the bed have begun to lighten in color as well...

while the black tip and hard red winter wheat are as green as ever...still the first half of june...early days...things are coming along out there...no idea where they will lead.

fashionably late

a bit late but i will accept it...

and a moth drinking nectar from a winter vetch bloom.

apis et ablata est

i have seen pollinators this spring...however they have mostly been on small berry blooms around the yard...

there is a wealth of other, larger flowers around the yard and the temperature has consistently been above fifty-five degrees (fahrenheit)...however i have sen exactly one honeybee this year...this is disturbing in and of itself...

however there is even more troublesome sign...the hawthorn tree in the front yard has begun to bloom and it is signaling this by emitting a very strong fragrance...it is the second week of june and last year this tree was crawling with honey bees ( as it was the year before )...this year what i am seeing is...

branches of blooms and blooms to be devoid of anything but...

you guessed it, small solitary bees...i can hope this turns around in the next few days ( weeks will be too late ) the small pollinators will do their best to cover the tree ( and it will provide ample resources for them )...i have to wonder how this will impact the number of "berries" and how that will impact the birds that consume them next winter...

if it is a difficult winter and the robins come out of the wood to compete with the jays for the berries they may be disappointed...and there may not be any shriveled berried from this season left over next june.

rain

temperatures more indicative of autumn have arrived...and along with it significant rains...

the last time it rained, nine days ago, this rain gauge collected just over an inch and a half of precipitation...

today it shows five...a three and a half inch rainfall today in the middle of my back yard...

the one on the north side between the housed uncharacteristically held a shade less than the other on the fourteenth of the month...

today, characteristically, it is topped out...we have had some rain today...

the evidence in on the petals, silks, and ears...

the hawthorn tree in the front yard stood out sharply as i pulled in the drive this evening...

the bees that gathered the nectar in the hawthorn blooms this past may...

will help feed the birds as winter deepens...nature is a web of interconnections...this one is so obvious i can see it plainly...there are others, more complex and obscured that human cognition has little hope of finding, much less understanding...time to relinquish the idea of control and be part.

seeds...processed and in production

some of the potato and carolina horse nettle fruits ( first photo ) have softened enough to begin the process of seed extraction...so i cut the horse nettle fruits ( second photo ) and the potato fruits ( third...they are cousins ( and both related to tomatoes ) and, while the reproductive process is similar, the structures of the fruits are very different...i squeezed the seeds out in to containers of water to rinse the mucilage from the seeds and rinsed them out in a strainer. placing the horse nettle seeds ( fourth ) and potato seeds ( fifth ) onto paper towels to dry...the potato seeds are significantly smaller than their cousins though, i believe, easily as numerous...wheat took my attention next...the ear of dwarf syrian wheat ( sixth ) is not that difficult to thresh by rolling the ear between thumbs and forefingers and using the thumbnails to flick the "berries" ( why grains of wheat should be called berries is beyond me...Jean should like the idea though ) out of the husks into a container...of course chaff and awns go in there too so you must winnow the grain..emmer wheat ( seventh ) is an ancient "unimproved" variety...old dna in my yard this past year..the ears are smaller and each grain ( eighth ) has a sharp awn and a thick coat of husks ( that only become more obdurate the longer they sit ) and basically each grain must be teased oput by hand...i know why they let oxen walk on the ears in the threshing room now...rye ( ninth ) is almost the polar opposite...lightly husked, you can actually see the grain sticking out in the photo if you look closely, simply rolling the ears between thumb and forefinger will dislodge the grain into your hand ( tenth )...there are still seeds in production out there as well...all those bees that swarmed the hawthorn tree in may ( eleventh ) did their part in creating a tree full of hawthorn berries ( twelfth and thirteenth ) that the birds will be utilizing this coming winter...the will be gone by february...spreading hawthorn seeds who knows where...bees are endangered pollinators...and birds are endangered sowers...we interfere with more than the lives of plants when we turn to agriculture...do some research...we are even more harmful than we know.