My Green Wall (Eastern Side)

Today’s photo shows a wall of the "green box" that surrounds me right now. This year the vegetation seems especially lush. This isn’t surprising. After several years drought of greater or lesser severity, 2008 has been marked by rainfall that’s a bit above the average. Just as important, the rain has been spaced appropriately, with rarely a week passing without at least a little rain.

his weekend I tried to visit my "experiment site" and found I couldn’t get through the vegetation from the direction I usually approach. In truth, I didn’t try particularly hard. I was wearing shorts, and long pants and a lopper for the thistly vines might well have done the trick. I will try again once the forest dries a bit.

am already noticing a few of the forest’s annual plants turning yellow and starting to die back. I was aware that plants like the mayapple die off early, but I tended to think that a July die-back was due to lack of rainfall in the previous four to five years. That I’m still seeing these plants dieing now in a year a good rainfall has finally gotten through to me that these are very short-lived plants. Perhaps I should make this the first "sign" of fall.

Another change: This morning it was darker when I walked Dog than it has been for a while. For some reason, I had it in my head that the shortening of the day's light wasn't noticeable on our walks until August.