September 14

The town neglected to mow the roadsides a second time this late summer, and we have been treated to a display of wildflowers and weeds in more abundance along Grove.

Noteworthy have been the pileworts or fireweeds, which have risen high above the ground foliage and have for the past two weeks been displaying white seed heads. They resemble the dandelion heads in the manner in which they seem to “poof” upright, but they are decidedly more cotton looking, thicker and strikingly white.

Smartweed and jewelweed have also thrived, particularly in the roadside areas that are more shaded by the abutting forest. Jewelweed was so numerous only a week ago that it was almost disorienting in places to see such splashes of orange amid the delicate green.

Now, the asters are dominant, though their whites and purples are set within the varied tall grasses which have slowly been changing colors, giving any particular stretch a patchwork appearance of shades of green, yellows and even slight purple leaf blades, where seed-laden heads of all configurations rise upward.

The roadsides are simply beautiful now.