calendar

if i got good enough at observing my surroundings, i suppose i would never need a calendar. oh look, the first goat’s beard seed heads have puffed into existence, but there are still a lot of unopened buds. if i could add to that bit of observation the fact that the bull thistles are just starting to open, but haven’t bloomed, and that the crown vetch is in full bloom, and the raspberry blossoms have fallen but the raspberry fruits are hard and dark, and that the wild strawberries are fruiting, and that the cattails are about head high, and the dock plants are waist high with seed heads that look like millet, and that the tree frogs and green frogs are singing nightly but their songs are starting to wane, and the crickets haven’t begun to sing at all yet, and the sleeves of garlic mustard seeds have developed but are still green instead of brown, and that the pulpits of the jack-in-the-pulpits have collapsed, but the seed heads have just started to form, and that the blue flag irises in the shallows of the lake are in their full heavenly glory. if i could put all this together, i bet i could tell you, without the help of google or a calendar, that, yes, it is indeed, june 17.

goat’s-beard (Tragopogon pratensis)

lake johanna, arden hills, minnesota