evening primrose

Thursday August 25, 2011

Dave Bonta August 25, 2011 3

The rain-drenched soapwort petals are showing a faint wash of pink. Is that any way to age? Evening primrose leaves have turned barn-red.

Dave Bonta June 25, 2011 1

Spots of red in the garden: old leaves on the evening primroses, new leaves on the witch hazel, which seems to be having a prolonged spring.

Dave Bonta June 8, 2011 2

Evening primroses in the mid-morning heat: so yellow! As the sun climbs, the stigmas slowly retract their claw-shaped shadows.

A cat watches me from the depths of the mock orange tree. The birds are elsewhere, and silent, having begun singing around 4:00 a.m. …

A burst of activity at the top of one of the tall locusts: chickadees scold, a phoebe catches gnats, and other birds sit shining in the sun. …

A question mark butterfly on the railing next to my boots. A cuckoo's soft call sounds like an answer to the incessant caws of a crow. …

Six cabbage white butterflies dance in the heat. A halictid bee stumbles through the forest of hairs on the back of my arm. …

Gone for just two days, I come home to find half the lilac crushed by a fallen limb from the dead elm. A phoebe already uses it as a perch. …

The sun-struck meadow gives off a thin mist. From the front window, the tap of a female cardinal's bill against her rival in the glass. …

A hummingbird grooms itself in the middle of a downpour while a phoebe plucks insects from the side of the dead elm, hovering in place. …

Overcast and cold. A firefly floats past the porch with his abdomen pointing down, lamp at the ready for any unscheduled onset of darkness. …