blog two
june twenty first twenty twenty four

this is the 2nd edition of my blog! posted from my phone @ point reggae. surprised i did this again, honestly, but ive been recording observations this whole month!this spans may 31-' june 21st, the strawberry moon and solstice. it is in reverse chronoligical order because i start writing at the top of a single note on my phone :)

6.20.24
Today is solstice, the longest day of the year, and one of my favorites. It's hard to believe summer is just officially starting. I feel like it is already almost over, at least halfway through. It is also the full moon.
This morning I watch two crows sit on my roof, cawing loud and long enough to catch my attention, then swoop down and strut around my yard. I am becoming enamored with the face that birds make when they are too hot, opening their beaks to circulate air or something. I don't really know how bird anatomy works. It is very funny and cute though. The crows do this as they walk around. My chicken, Lemony, also does this, but I haven't noticed the others do it.
The sun is hot, beating down voraciously on the earth and all its creatures. Fitting for the solstice, the longest day is also the hottest. I don't even want to go outside, where I've spent the last two enjoying the sun and the heat. I don't even want to go to the beach. I guess three days is about how long I can put up with anything. It is forecasted to do thunder storms tonight, a welcome reprieve, but I don't think it will. Doesn't feel like it. Me and Neale chose to set up tomorrow morning instead of tonight for the festival due to the forecast but I am regretting that decision, although I'm very thankful that I will get to sleep in a room with AC.
I remember this years winter solstice, it was a balmy December day and I walked down to the ocean at Timber Point and collected some sea spirits. Nothing like that is happening today, as the temperature pushes 100 degrees I am called to stay inside. The highest temp according to my phone today was 98. Much hotter than it usually gets here, usually 90 is a scorcher.
I remember last Summer Solstice. It was relatively cool, and the ground was sopping wet, puddles of standing water in the corners of the yard. I had a gathering of friends and made beans and hotdogs and burgers and whatnot. It was a lot of fun. That was the last time I did any hosting or anything like that, and most of the people there last year havent been seen in almost as long. A tire swing hangs in our backyard, that we built that night, as a reminder of days that I was able to revel in camaraderie.
I wish I could visit the Sun on this special day but, I can tell when my presence is not desired. I will have plenty of other chances to see him this summer, but today he is busy doing something else.

6.18.24
First day of the heat wave. Not too bad today. About 10 degrees hotter than the weather app forecasted, though.
The night is hot, but much much cooler than the day. and unnervingly still. Silent, not a frog or owl or scuttling in the bushes to be heard. The moon hangs heavy and low in the sky, shining brightly, casting its power down upon us. I don't wish to be out here too long.

6.17.24.
Raccoon in the trash again, because it was trash night and we had to take the bungee cord off. Overcast and cool, long shirt long pants weather. Enjoying it before the historic heatwave. My peonies are now beginning to bloom. Nannies peonies are done.

6.16.24
Fucking cold last night into this morning. Phone says we had a low of 47*. Bright clear day, hot hot sun. Cold wind. Picked the first strawberries yesterday. Red clover past its prime, on the way out.

6.14.24
Predicted severe weather today, thunderstorms. Never happened. Was pouring when I was driving on the highway in bath, though, so I turned around and came home. Cold cold wind. Crazy clouds, looks like the surface of Jupiter.

6.13.24
Fucking hot out today. The road was covered in thousands of tiny snails this morning. Many of them were smashed up in the road. Neale tells me about how this happened once when he would walk to Nannie's to get on the bus and there was nowhere to step that wasn't snails. Similar scene to today.
Harvested scapes, the wild mustard growing alongside it, and peonies. Scapes maybe could have used another day or two.

6.12.24
Nannie's peonies starting to drop petals now. Mine still haven't bloomed. Irises gone by, a couple still hang on. 75* today but a cold cold wind makes me wish I was wearing a sweater.

6.10.24
Raccoon in our trash again for the second time this week.

6.9.24
Rained all morning with a beautiful clear afternoon and nighttime. Average temp, not too hot not too cold. Nannie's peonies are in full bloom. Mine have just finished budding, maybe five or so more days before bloom. Garlic planted last October is doing scapes now, waiting for them to complete a full rotation before I pull them.

6.8.24
Thunderstorms today in Augusta! First the devil was beating his wife, then some loud bombs of thunder as the clouds roll in.

6.7.24
last night was cool and misty, the air silent and still. so heavy with water that it leaves droplets on everything. visibility wasn't too bad in spite of that. when we came back from putting the chickens in, we heard a large animal in the woods, probably a deer or something. the field was FULL of fireflies! way more than last time, and they were blinking more often. the new moon was last night.
There is folk wisdom that the weather around the new moon is cooler than usual. Observationally I am finding this to be true. the recorded high for yesterday in my area was 71 as opposed to the near 80s we have been seeing, although with the heavy humidity and no wind it easily felt the same as it has been during the day.
today it is raining, cool and grey. i think it will likely rain all day. the world is sleepy. it feels like the 4 of swords. i am reminded of rain's importance in bringing rest, how through water flows restoration. today is one of those days. i have many things to do but i think i will rest instead, back at it again tomorrow. it is always worth it to approach tasks with a fresh mind and charged batteries. i am seeing this demonstrated by nature, with the loud vibrant colors and vigorous growth that is happening this year after last year's sleepy rain.

6.6.24
the peonies are beginning to open, and a large patch of pinesap stands tall in the woods between ours and Leah's house. the single lady slipper to bloom has gone by now. the weigela bloomed prolifically and the flowers are beginning to wilt away, a favorite of hummingbirds. dandelions are well past now, as is the crabapple tree. the rose of sharon just gained its full leaves. some irises around town have gone past but there are many large patches of them still around with probably more flowers to come. where there are lupines, they are fully blooming. i just noticed the first daisies today as well.

6.5.24
first official swim of the year! went to timber point and swam in the little river. high tide was 10:48. 85 degrees outside today, bright sun. Allegedly there is going to be a storm but it doesn't feel like it will. (update written on 6.9: i don't think there was ever a storm this day.)

6.1.24
i got up at sunrise this morning, exactly 5 am according to my watch. it was downright cold, 47* according to the weather app on my phone. seasonally appropriate for the first of June i suppose but a stark change from the very warm weather we've had this last week. hot daytime, sunny skies.
when i get home i see a turkey vulture eating the dead opossum outside our house that died a couple days ago. we all talked about moving it upon discovery of their body but, despite our empathy to not want it to get smashed up more, none of us wanted to be the one to (touch it) disturb its final resting place. a stronger stomach moved it out of the road. the turkey vulture sits in the road now, feasting on what had been a pretty pristine piece of roadkill when I'd last looked at it. i wonder why it waited until now to have a bite, I'd seen turkey vultures circling since the opossum appeared. the turkey vulture pecks the opossum, effortlessly taking bites. it reminds me of the chickens eating clovers. i wonder if the Turkey vultures need the bacteria that breaks down deceased animals like how chickens need grit added to their feed.
neale gets home around 8:45. he says he saw a gray fox on our road! then we went to close the chicken's coop-into-run door around 9 pm. it was very hot out today, bright powerful sun, but the evening is much cooler, the wind downright cold. appropriate for the season, where it's been lovely, yet strangely, temperate recently. walking back to our house through the woods, we hear foxes laughing in the distance. then I see a single firefly in the clearing to the Leah's field. i had just seen a post like yesterday about how fireflies are much less common than they used to be because of loss of habitat as humans cover the land to build more buildings. growing up in buckfield my moms yard was full of fireflies most clear nights and i could watch them from my bedroom window, but i hadn't really seen them (save for at Baxter) since i moved away. we went to our yard, standing on the knoll, looking out towards the field and watched at least 20 fireflies flash their messages to each other. we watched them.
the sky is crystal clear, the stars matching the bugs. vega and Arcturus catch my eye. As above, so below

5.31.24
The biggest bumblebee I've ever seen has been flying around my porch and crawling around the eve above my door. She is easily the size of a half dollar and sounds like a box fan as she whizzes around my head. I watch her, and she pays me no mind.
After watching her all afternoon, I realize she is likely a newly appointed queen looking for a place to build her hive. Unfortunately my front door is not the best place for her, as much as I enjoy watching a beautiful bumblebee and would love to watch how her kingdom unfolds. So I am employed by the Emperor over this land , to build a decoy wasp nest to deter her attempts. I take a small paper lunchsack and stuff it full of newspaper. I wait until she leaves on a routine scouting mission and tape it to the corner of the eve. In a last ditch effort to regain her newly claimed colony she flies at my head. I hang my paper bag anyways.
(Post note)
I haven't seen her since. The decoy also keeps delivery men from walking all the way up my pathway, I chuckle to imagine what goes through their head.