This year’s wild strawberry harvest has been great. We have been getting some of the largest fruit since we moved in. We left the wild strawberry to invade our lawn and did little else. Click on the images for a larger view.
Category Archives: Life at Home
The Clover Harvest
We are in our clover harvest, a bounty from our lawn. We used the ground flowers in our bread, which makes the dough lighter. Click on the image for a larger view.
The Immaculate Lawn
Lawns are very disciplined spaces. Trimmed and managed into a perfect carpet of green. This is important. This is the way it is done. A flawless lawn is an exemplary symbol of the advances of mankind.
When Naomi and I moved to Maine, we rented a house in Jefferson. It was situated on an acre of land. The lawn mover we were given to maintain that one-acre lawn had broken. In a short time, the discipline of the lawn had been lost. What replaced it was very different (click on the image for a larger view). The lesson was not lost on us when we moved into our home.
Liquid Light
Summer is the season of liquid light—forms and edges seem to melt away. Our forest becomes a chapel dedicated to a goddess of color. Click in this image for a larger view.
Lupine
Lupine, Lupinus, is a symbol of summer in Maine. The common blue variety can be seen along the roadsides throughout the state. It is an elegant plant—the tip extends upwards as the blossoms unfurl. The flowering head takes a wonderful color gradient as the blossoms darken with time. Click on the images for a larger view.
Maple Seeds
One of the great joys of summer is maple seeds, those wonderful natural helicopters that children love to play with. This seed is from a silver maple, Acer saccharinum L., and is about 2.4 inches (6 cm) long. What can a tree know of aerodynamics? Click on the image for a larger view.
Blackberry Blossoms
Our blackberry canes are in blossom. The white flowers can be quite striking against the monochromatic foliage of summer. These are probably our most productive plants and give us almost a year supply of fruit, from the fresh berries at the end of the summer to the pies and smoothies we make from frozen berries throughout the rest of the year. Click on the image for a larger view.
Wild Strawberries
The first fruit we can harvest every year is wild strawberry. Not a very larger fruit, about the size of the tip of your little finger. This plant is found throughout our garden, woods, and meadow. It is also a favorite of the chipmunks. Our Newfoundland dog Kai also loved these berries and would sit out with us as we gathered them. We only get a few handful of strawberries each year—they are time consuming to harvest in any quantities, but they are fun to snack on when we are in the garden. Click on the image for a larger view.
Summer Wind, Summer Forest
Yesterday was beautiful. I believe that trees evolved to be tall simply to play and dance in the wind. Click on the image for a larger view.
Hikari on the Kennebec
We had a taste of summer this week. The air was filled with heat, light, and fragrance. We took Hikari, our Newfoundland dog, down to the Kennebec river. Click on the image for a larger view.
