May 19, 2007

• Not Summer Yet

  I think I’ll accept The Great Greyfox‘s ruling on when breakup ends and summer begins.  He says it is when the fireweed blooms.  Little purple fireweed shoots are still emerging, and the biggest of those that have been coming up since the snow melted are no more than about a foot tall, with no buds yet.

  Two nights ago, frost bronzed a few tender young leaves on poplars and birches, and nipped the tips of the new growth on some of the little spruce trees in open areas.  On a walk in the woods yesterday, I found some dirty snow in a shady spot, but it probably melted during the day.  That tiny baby spruce cone is so intricate… zoom in.
  

  Below is the first grasshopper I’ve seen this year.  It’s easy to tell by the color that it has just hatched out.  As they grow and eat green things, their bodies turn green.
  

  This is my front yard.  The green ground cover in the foreground is a mass of tiny chickweed seedlings that will grow into great salad greens.  The taller, reddish, branching plants growing among the chickweed is Epilobium angustifolium, fireweed.  Somebody asked me what fireweed tastes like.  It tastes just like fireweed.  After the plants turn green, it is too bitter to eat, but in the tender purple stage they have a very mild flavor, something like asparagus.  Before anyone asks, chickweed has a flavor and crunch similar to lettuce, only sweeter.
  

  No frost last night, but a dewy morning today.
  

  Shelf fungi on poplar tree, possibly “turkeytail”.
  

  • 4:00 pm
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