dusk bike ride

Slabtown Road sign and cloud
At 8:00pm I rode a five mile loop of state roads. I saw two bald eagles in a clear cut perched on top of trees. I saw a committee of crows beefing at the eagles, sitting on horizontal wood littering the clear cut. In the course of the ride I was never passed by an automobile

Cow Oak

3 swamp chesnut oaks
Named for French botanist, Frances A. Michaux, who wrote a three volume treatise on the trees of eastern North America. Called “Basket Oak” because baskets were woven from fibers and splints obtained by splitting the wood. These strong containers were used to carry cotton from the fields. The sweetish acorns can be eaten raw, without boiling. Cows consume the acorns, hence the name “Cow Oak.” Swamp chestnut oak is considered an early succession species with mature trees retarding growth of understory vegetation due to an allelopathic effect.–Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Quercus michauxii- in its final Autumn the progenitor swamp chestnut oak had a prolific mast year, it created and released thousands of acorns, too many for the squirrels and bluejays to carry away. Several hundred of the acorns sprouted and made it to yearling status. Deer grazed many of the saplings out of existence. These three remain, the largest individuals in a thicket of QUMI.

hot month

silhouettes of three people
post Oppenheimer
walking in the shade of a deciduous tree, in the micro climate between ground and branches, is a good place to be