Sunday, November 1, 2015

October 27


The thin white toothed asters have gone to seed head within the past few days. There are places along the road where only a month ago the white petals dominated so, that it was easy to imagine the ditches were covered in a sparse dusting of snow. Now there are tiny puff balls of seeds, each like small dandelion heads clustered among the browning foliage that was green only yesterday, it seems.

Take a stick and quickly swing through a grouping of them, and watch as hundreds of blowies take to the air, bound for wherever the wind disperses them. It looks like a miniature snow globe, where the seeds flit about in the light breeze then settle in layers one on top another upon the ground.

The milkweed pods too have dried and opened, spilling forth thousands of seeds which simply await the wind to carry them aloft. There is a large grouping near the north stone wall of the arm, with pods that dangle open and clusters of silken seeds ready. Many have simply fallen to the ground below in clumps of white brought down by the weight of the misty rain two days ago.

Those that remain cling yet to the pod husk, drying in the frosted morning and awaiting the building breeze which will carry them skyward.

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