Sentinel Time

The summer unfolds in fleeting stages, a slide show of lovely, familiar scenes. From year to year each scene will very in length, from two days to three weeks, depending on the weather. This year we raced from winter in a cold April to summer in May. Nature forgot about spring this year. In May our irises blossomed and, two days later, the blooms dried to dust. Columbines flower were so fleeting that the humming birds didn’t bother to show up to sip nectar.

Now, well into a hot June, we have reached a new, but familiar stage – one I call “Sentinel Time.” I name it for the yucca blossoms that have a colony in our yard and south pink pasture roses east pasture, but the stage also includes Queen Anne’s lace, black-eyed Susans, and pink pasture roses along the country roadways and pastures. 

The sentinels foretell that the wheat harvest is about to begin, and, indeed, the first harvesting machines started their work in the fields near us yesterday. Now mere stubble is all that remains of the amber waves of grain.

Next there will be homegrown tomatoes in our kitchen along with sweet corn from a local farm. Before we know it the corn harvest will begin and the woodlands will add gold and reds to their color scheme.

Time keeps marching on.

Copyright 2018 Shirley Domer, .