Flowing

Fells Reservation, Massachusetts

A lively stream !!!! after all these months...
  ... have not seen and heard them for a while and I've missed them... their burbles and sparkles,
       cascading through the forest, and a happy beings around them...  

Everlasting

Rock Circuit Trail, Fells Reservation, Massachusetts

Rocks were the first to come and still set the pathways...
   Stops and turns, jumps and climbs, viewpoints... the motion of living, perfectly adjusted to the rules...
    ... with these eyes watching...

Readying for the Winter

Fells Reservation, Massachusetts

The winter is not that far-off.
  Chickadees are earnestly caching seeds in the bark of trees, in the cracks of wood.
   Flying about, with brief stops, just to check... it seems all is known, even my gaze...  

Winter of 2020

Fells Reservation, Massachusetts

Cloaked in browns...
 ... rustling orchestra on the ground...
 ... and on the rocks,  lively mosses and flowery lichens seem to be enjoying this snowless winter...

Embraced

Fells Reservation, Massachusetts

This winter, so far, has been almost snowless, unlike winters I truly love...
... brings me five years back to the winter of 2015, the snowiest Cambridge on record... 

... and snowiest memories...

The Story of Monarch

Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Concord, Massachusetts

It is October on Great Meadows...
... Milkweed seeds are ready to leave... with their silky hairs, waiting for the wind...
   ... and Monarch butterfly comes to mind...

Monarch's life is inspiring storytelling of the nature's basis of being where all of IT matters...

The story begins (and ends) in central Mexico where Monarchs spend winters on just a few mountains in the microclimate of Oyamel (Abies Religiosa) trees. As the spring starts warming northern territories, the butterflies journey up north to Canada in four or five stops. On each stop, Monarch mother lays eggs on the leaves of Milkweeds and ends her life. Milkweeds provide food for her young and give them toxins for protection. In a matter of days, they transform to butterflies and take to the skies until the next patch of Milkweeds...
... and then the next... and the next...
... with the fourth (or fifth) generation of butterflies reaching the final destination.
In the fall, these "super" Monarchs head back to central Mexico by direct flight...
... where their life cycle begins again...

Milkweeds... Milkweeds... the name given to the toxic plants by humans...
... I wonder what is their name given by Monarchs ?...