Love at the Beach

Looking for heart-shaped stones on the beach is something I’d never thought of doing until recently.  Many people have collections of these.  Who would have thought anyone would consider a ‘heart of stone’ something worth searching for?

Beaches are favorite places for couples to visit.  They take long walks along the shoreline at sunset, or sit on the beach together, gazing out at the horizon while sharing their dreams of the future.   Nearby Rainbow Haven Beach attracts numerous singles seeking summer romance .  Glowing with suntan lotion, they bask in the sun while non-chalantly checking one another out from behind their fashionable sunglasses.

The shore and its pounding waves are sometimes employed by poets as a metaphor for the coming together of lovers.  One waits patiently for the other to arrive at long last from afar.

But what happens when love dies and couples who walked together so often hand in hand along the sand must now walk alone?  If love can begin at the beach, could it not end there as well?

This week I found not only one, but several yellow long-stemmed roses tangled in the seaweed on the shore.  Although they were a bit frazzled by the elements, they still looked fairly fresh.

In the language of flowers, yellow roses symbolize the end of a love affair.  Could someone have been given a bouquet of yellow roses at the beach?  And could these have then been abandoned on the shore or thrown into the sea?  We’ll never know.

Strange how my heart beats
To find myself upon your shore.
Strange how I still feel
My loss of comfort gone before.
Cool waves wash over
And drift away with dreams of youth.
So time is stolen
I cannot hold you long enough.

~ Enya

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The Golden Days of Summer

Summer spills her golden days,
Upon the earth in lust displays.

~ Nora Bozeman

Warm August days bring forth blooms of a yellow color that weren’t noticeable on the landscape a few weeks ago.  These cheerful flowers have a golden glow that mimics the bright summer sun.

Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) are native to North America and are desirable in gardens for their bright color and quality of low-maintenance.  They’ve been used by native people to treat a variety of ailments from snake bites to earaches.   These yellow daisies  have a flat open design that is especially attractive to butterflies.

Evening-primroses (Onagraceae) open at sunset and close by noon the following day.  Also known as sun cups, they are pollinated by moths that fly from flower to flower during the night hours.  The young shoots of this plant can be eaten in a salad while the roots can be cooked and eaten as a vegetable.  Yet another name for this plant, King’s Cure-all, reveals its myriad medicinal uses, from pain-relief to cough suppression.

I haven’t had any luck identifying the plant with light yellow flowers shown above.  It grows profusely along the Salt Marsh Trail.  Does it look familiar to anyone?

Update August 6th:  I’ve discovered that this plant is most likely Sea Radish which is in the Mustard family (cruciferae).

Canada Hawkweed is also a native plant, found growing along roadsides and railway tracks.  Since the trail along the salt marsh follows the old Blueberry Express train track, it’s no surprise that it’s found along there.  Rough Hawkweed, which has hairier stems, grows in my lawn in early July.  Usually considered a weed, it derives its name from the old belief that it was eaten by hawks to improve their eyesight.

A few Golden Rod plants are in bloom along the Salt Marsh Trail but not yet in my yard.  Ever since I was a child, their blooming has been a sign for me that the summer was winding down. There are numerous varieties of this plant.  Larger ones have very rigid stalks and can grow several feet tall.

Take time this month to drink in the beauty around you.  If you don’t have a garden of your own, take an extra bit of time to enjoy the flowers growing freely along roadsides.  Enjoy these golden days because…

Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.

~ William Shakespeare

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If You Go Out in the Woods Today…

If you go down in the woods today
You’re sure of a big surprise.
If you go down in the woods today
You’d better go in disguise;
For ev’ry Bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today’s the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic.
~ Jimmy Kennedy

Sunday’s afternoon picnic in the community garden was the event of the season for local wildlife of the stuffed variety.   The municipal councillor has made this an annual event that launches the local summer carnival.

Low key and catering to the youngest members of the community, everyone is welcome to come and enjoy books, music and cake under the trees in a garden setting.  What could possibly be more civilized?

The community garden consists of several native species of trees, including a Mountain Ash transplanted from Flandrum Hill.  Flower beds are maintained by volunteers.  Each season sees the addition of something new.  A labyrinth is in the plans for next year.

Events that invite people of all ages to come together in an outdoor setting are at the mercy of the weather, but yesterday’s sunshine was ideal.  Children ran among the trees while bears and rabbits relaxed in the shade.

Considering how much fun everyone seemed to be having with the outdoor chess set, perhaps there’s a thing or two to be learned from the way toddlers play.  Knights are the most powerful pieces because they look like horses and you can pretend to ride them.  The problem of deciding who goes first or next is eliminated because everyone plays at once and together.  You trade pieces with whoever is willing and are free to depart the game whenever you feel the urge for something more to eat.

As is the case with these events, there are always those who run wild, refuse to eat the crusts on their sandwiches, and then eat too much cake.  Nothing that a good nap won’t set right.  Perhaps we should all do like the bears who gaily gad about, and love to play and shout and never have any care. Maybe we’d all be better for the experience of playing hide and seek among the trees as long as we please.

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When the Crickets Hesitate

Summer is heating up and bird and cricket songs drift through the air.  According to the Library of Congress Science Reference Department, there is a way to ascertain the temperature by listening carefully to the sound that crickets make.  

Male crickets make the sound by rubbing their wings together, usually with the purpose of impressing females.  The rate depends on the cricket’s absolute temperature.

• For Fahrenheit:  count the number of cricket chirps in 15 seconds and then add 37.
• For Celsius:  count the number of chirps in 8 seconds and add 5.

Summer Haiku

Silence, a a deeper silence

When the crickets hesitate.

~ Leonard Cohen

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Gazing into the Fire

Even when it’s raining and the days are cloudy, the sun is still blazing in the sky.  Its presence is vital to our survival and that of every other living thing on the planet.  It’s no surprise that so many cultures throughout the ages have worshipped this ball of flames. Though we shouldn’t look into the sun (see here for some good reasons why), we can look into the flames of a fire.

Like us, fire requires oxygen.  It can provide warmth and cook food or be a destructive force like no other.  Visually, it can be mesmerizing.  Back in the 1800s, Henry David Thoreau was already lamenting the growing absence of open flames in hearths due to the introduction of wood stoves.  He believed that you could always see a face in the flames, and that gazing into a fire at the end of a long day of hard work was both warming and relaxing.

What is fire?  It’s a mystery.  Scientists give us gobbledegook about friction and molecules, but they don’t really know.

~ Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Who would have thought that fiery reds and oranges could be found so easily in the summer landscape?  A Pileated Woodpecker, berries, seaweed, flowers and leaves are all examples of the fire element in nature at this time of year.  It’s no wonder that the fire element is often associated with the summer sun.

Images in the montage were taken from submissions to a Midsummer’s Scavenger Hunt.

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Elusive Summer

This empty boardwalk should be teeming with sun seekers dressed in bathing suits, eating ice cream cones, carrying beach chairs or picnic baskets and heading out for a sunny day at the beach. Where are they? 

During the summer, this blue mussel bed at Rainbow Haven Beach is usually a magnet for children looking for crabs at low tide.  It too is desolate. 

Although we’re already well into July, endless weeks of rain and cooler than seasonal temperatures have made Nova Scotians feel like we have yet to experience summer this year.  Our winters can be quite harsh with lots of ice, snow and cold, but our wonderful summers usually make them somewhat tolerable. 

Somewhere, beyond the fog and clouds, I know there are blue skies and the sun is shining brightly.  Maturing robins are looking for worms in the lawn, wild flowers are blooming and the grass is growing, carrying on as though it is indeed summer.  They don’t seem to need to see blue skies and experience soaring temperatures in order to go about their summer business.  Maybe we should be more trusting too.  Hopefully this week’s forecast for sunnier skies will give us all something to smile about.

The blue of heaven is larger than the clouds.

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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A Midsummer’s Scavenger Hunt

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine. 

From ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’  by William Shakespeare

It’s Midsummer’s Eve and time for a scavenger hunt!    Whether you live in the city or the country, here in Nova Scotia or on the other side of the planet, you’re welcome to participate.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to photograph five natural subjects that each captures the essence of one of the following elements.  Each one is characterized by one or several colors that may be substituted for a literal image of the element. 

1. Fire (Red)
2. Water (Blue or Black)
3. Metal (White, Gold or Silver)
4. Earth (Brown or yellow)
5. Wood (Green)

Over the past five Saturdays, I’ve written a weekly post about some of the shapes that are found repeatedly in nature:  the meander, the spiral, the circle, the branch and the star.   Incorporating these shapes into your photographs is not necessary, but doing so will breathe more life into them. 

Here are some examples:

 

Red Poppy (Fire)

Trees Reflected in Birdbath (Water)

White Star of Bethlehem Flowers (Metal)

Garden Snail and Leaf on Stone (Earth)

Tree Trunks (Wood)

The hunt will end on July 20th.  Your photos can be uploaded in a blog post (add a link to your post in the comments area) or they can be emailed to me for uploading on my blog.  Prizes will consist of prints from Drawing Conclusions.   Get outside and look at nature in a different way.  Have fun

 

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