Turning

Laying atop dormant bunch grasses at MuRefuge,
a stone purchased in December, 2014,
from the Georgia O'Keefe Museum, Santa Fe, NM,

Flowering Red Buckwheat
(Eriogonum grande var. rubescens)

According to the Celtic calendar August 1 is the third of the four seasonal cross quarter days. The ancient midsummer celebration of Lammas (old English for "loaf mass") honored the new harvest by baking bread. 

No matter what the calendar reflects, the season is turning here at MuRefuge earlier than "usual." For the past month to six weeks autumnal behavior abounds here with the crows congregating, as well as the deer, in the field South of her property line here in the West Sonoma County. The grasses on the hill sides are golden brown. The tinder dry vegation is fueling a plethora of wildfires all around California. Cal FIre says the wildfire season has started several months earlier than "usual." Back here at MuRefuge the typically late flowering natives, planted to provide nectar for the butterflies migrating South, are already in full bloom.

California Aster 'Point Saint George' (Aster chilense)

California Goldenrod (Solidago californica)

Tom Stienstra, the Bay Area outdoor writer, recently published an article in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle regaling the predictions wildlife make about our weather here along the West Coast. He gave many examples of fish and birds migration patterns that alert us
to the coming changes and suggests these are more predictive than the forecast made by meteorologists.

As we "take time to look" and experience the early turning of the seasons,  may we