Mountain Laurels

This week, I went to check on the mountain laurels, and indeed they were blooming! It’s a yearly pilgrimage, yet this year they were sadly underwhelming. Some years they are a wonder, an explosion, but this year they are only dotted at the tops of the bushes, every so often there is an abundant plant. That’s okay, I tell them, you can’t be on every year. The kousa dogwoods are also sparse this year, yet last year they were glowing, lasting weeks. Every year is slightly different, even though it seems like it’s the same old thing.

Summer is firmly here, along with a spongy moth caterpillar infestation. It is said that it’s not noticeable it until the life cycle of the caterpillar is half through. I am now seeing it! It’s affecting oak trees the most. My house is surrounded by maples, which are seemingly untouched, but when I walk down the hill to where the oak trees are, the devastation is evident. The trees’ leaves are lacey and see through, and leaf shrapnel covers the ground. Flat terrain or pavement will show the caterpillar frass (their leavings), and when you walk in the woods you can hear the droppings falling lightly, like a gentle rain. It’s truly absurd! (It’s just chewed up leaves, I tell myself.) The trees will grow new leaves, but not as dense as the new leaves in spring. Spongy moths have been around (as gypsy moths) since the late 1800s, so this has happened before.

1. Lovely mountain laurels.
2. Timeworn by water.
3. Cinnamon fern.
4. Shadowy tunnel.
5. Sink hole.
6. An extremely large spongy moth caterpillar.
7. An oak and a maple, for leaf comparison.
8. Orchard grass abloom.
9. The Wallkill River, moody clouds. Summer encapsulated.
10. Words