September Contrast . . .
Rainy Day Salad: Dayflower, Lady’s Thumb, Pokeweed
(09 2018)
September, full of promise, and fast going.
The ninth month in New York City is often a gray and green temperate deluge, or else a sun, golden, set in a bluebird bright sky, high and dry.
One natural extreme, or the other, contrast with very little, an almost imperceptible, transition time if you get some sleep overnight.
Late-Summer Whites: Asters & Snakeroot
(09 2018)
— rPs 09 30 2018
The End of November . . .
Asteraceae Gone to Seed
(NYC 11 26 2017)
One of the aspects to appreciate most during the growing season’s latter half is the evolution of the predominate color. The tired greens of September give way to the splendid yellows of October that age into the russet spread seen by the end of November.
Wildflowers on the ground have mostly gone to seed by this time. The leaves up above that remain rustle in the tannic tones of the oaks. Here is where the color action remains.
Deciduous leaves often lumped under the generic descriptive “brown” resemble many of the cooked dishes on a plentiful table of Thanksgiving. The same kind of variety is actually present within that one color. One can see tan, rust, ochre, and many more. If, by the end of November, one cannot find a plant in bloom at their feet, pause, and look up . . .
November Splendor
(NYC 11 27 2017)
. . . where the plant world meets the sky.
— rPs 11 30 2017
Autumn Whites . . .
White Aster & Snakeroot
(Manhattan, NYC, 11 2016)
Russet variation of deciduous oaks and maples see their feet dressed in filigree of wildflower white as sparse as lace, or as morning frost on lawn, or the first accumulated dusting of flurries.
“Friends appear like snowflakes clung to a window. … ”
Lines of poems shaped like prose recited aloud in the out of doors can be a symptom, if one allows it, of mind, perhaps your own, ruminating, meeting, encountering such attractive intersections of nature and the city.
Here it remains, on the west side of Manhattan, where civil island meets tidal river at a time when sun sets are fast and temperatures bring a shiver.
The cold months are hinted on the rippled gray sky, felt on the wind, not far.
– rPs 11 21 2016
Postscript: Thanksgiving is on the menu. Centerpiece: Wildflower White (Asteraceae, various)
Brown, White, and Blue . . .
Brown, White, and Blue
Brown, white, and blue fills out the flag of the season marked by low light and temperatures. Late autumn, the winter proper, and early spring together sing in a harmony of three colors on clear bright days.
American Pokeweed stands shriveled and tan with a few blackened clusters of berries still in grip.
American Pokeweed
12 12 2014
Asters of several varieties have browned and gone to seed in heads as white as frost.
Asters of New York
12 12 2014
Snow, a bit, marks the edges. December, a proper cold one in New York City, can still give the hiker or cross country runner gifts of discovery as long as fans of wildflowers respect and appreciate the full life cycle of urban species.
December: Two Species Together
– rPs 12 12 2014
Wildflowers of the West Village 