July 1

Always a special day in the middle of the calendar year, very early summer, delicious, paradise, dreamed about all year, and not yet so hot or droughty that it makes us lax or gives us headaches or the cicadas keep us up all night. So with appreciation, here's the creek and its creekbed wildflowers, Queen Anne's Lace and phlox and junk lily, and also an Allium head that's past peak but still beautiful, like so many people we know.

Spring Thaw on the LaBarque

Thaws and about three inches of rain raised the level of LaBarque Creek and made it swirl as it rounds the bend on our property. The spring peepers began singing six days ago. I am awaiting the emergence of mayapples as a sign that the soil is warming.

Seasonal Fuzziness

Warm until February; snow and sleet in March: "Seasonal fuzziness" is what it's called by a Missouri Department of Conservation representative whom I heard speak about climate change (he said that he would not say "global warming" because that phrase was too  politicized). He said weather is drifting away from the calendar and our expectations because of man-made climate change. Yes, the weather is more and more confused; it's not a collective hallucination. Numerous outdoor events scheduled for March, when I'm often rhapsodizing about crocuses, have been snowed out, including a Mardi Gras dog parade ("Mardi Growl" -- everyone goes) in Eureka, and my planned jaunt to the back roads of  southern Illinois, inaccessible after a 7-inch snowfall. They rescheduled those events for April. Tonight it will be 0 degrees. This Saturday it'll be 52 degrees. LaBarque Creek (left), always pretty, looking like a poem, freezes and heats like a fever line.

Lucky Lager

About once a season I clean out the road shoulder and pick up trash that high water has left at creekside on the Divine Property. Here's today's take:

Lucky Lager Beer, while still purchasable in states that border on Canada, has been scarce in this area since 2005. It's a Canadian beer company bought out several times, and around 1978 during the "generic" craze, Lucky was said to be the generic beer in those cans that said simply "BEER." Lucky Lager bottles and especially their caps are collectibles, but this is a mere can. My haul is mostly cans and bottles, and sometimes a soccer ball or a patio chair, but the vibrator found today is a first. I wonder what story it would tell if it could. I believe someone used the Prestone bottle for target practice.