GOINGS ON IN THE GARDENS

Out back, yellow is the predominant color with the birches, hostas and lily of the valley all turned.

Twilight-note the islands of yellow.

Molls and twilight.

        

Minn's marker in the lily of valley

Meanwhile out front, Mr. Maple is glowing even in twilight:

Around the buffet:

Crow Bros are beginning to stop by.

One of the squirrel siblings, Slick red bird and a newly arrived Senor Junco.

Lil Woody hard at work

Out in the East Garden:

The monarchs left 2-3 weeks ago. At first I thought this might be a late-birthed straggler but then I looked up monarch- looking butterflies in MI and found there are several. This is a Painted Lady.

The birch this afternoon:

Practically a Maxfield Parrish scene.

 

Just in a couple of days, Mr. Birch has turned completely golden yellow. C put forth an idea that Indigenous folk believe that trees like the birch and maple contain some sort of spirit for they can change their appearance on a regular basis. I broadened this to all peoples on the planet and to all living things that all undergo change over their lifetimes. Anything live has spirit became the basis for early belief systems.

An elder teaching young ones this concept would often encounter a challenge: what about rocks? They're not alive like us. The elder's response would suggest that rocks have a different kind of spirit than those "living". "I've seen what a boulder can do to a mountainside or to a man. Even the smallest stone can cause trouble, for example, if it got caught in the hoof of a pony. They deserve respect, like everything else."