clouds, reflected

The sky was blue and it wore white clouds, forming a reflection in a local pond.

garden visit

I felt a need for flowers and color this morning. Since the garden near me seems to be in a state of transition this year I headed to Portsmouth, NH and Prescott Park. I walked through a community garden before heading into the park, spending a fair amount of time attempting to capture flowers with my camera. It was a bit of a challenge since the wind never stopped and the flowers were in a state of constant motion.

I'm so glad I have beautiful flowers to visit.

sunflower walk

I've been watching the Colby Farmstand website lately, wondering if they would open their sunflower field this year.

The field opened this week, with an announcement that they would regulate the number of people visiting during busy times. Once I saw the announcement I made plans to visit in the morning on a weekday. I arrived early yesterday to spend some time walking around and through the sunflowers.

It was wonderful to find spots to be alone with the flowers.

a happy bee

A bee happily feeds from wildflowers.

The nectar of a flower clearly has more attraction for the bee than the flesh of a human.

open

I don't know what made me check the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge site yesterday but I'm glad I did. I was delighted to find that the entire beach is now reopened. After checking the tide chart I made plans for a long beach walk this morning.

The beach at Parker River closes each year on April 1st for the nesting season of the endangered piping plover. Both piping plovers and least terns nest on the beach. Here's the final plover update from the refuge biologist for the 2020 season:

"This year we had 34 or perhaps 34.5 pairs of piping plovers. (I think one male lost his mate early on and re-nested with a different female, hence the half-pair.) This is well below last year's record high of 50 pairs, but preliminary reports indicate that the plover population increased statewide this year. And although we had fewer pairs of plovers on the Refuge this year, productivity (chicks fledged per pair) was above average, with a total of 44 fledglings."

I arrived at parking lot 3 at the mid-point between high and low tide. There were a few people sitting on the beach and a few people walking. I headed south, soon finding myself alone with sanderlings and sea gulls, walking, listening to the sound of the ocean.

It was a delightful walk.

More photos from today's walk can be seen in the gallery Parker River, and... 2020 starting with this photo and ending here.

hope

I don't think we have lived through a presidential race in our past with the significance of this year's race. It scares me to think of the continued destruction of our democracy if the current inhabitant of the White House wins again this year.

The convictions held by speakers at the Democratic National Convention left me with a sense of hope.

We must continue fighting, we all need to vote, and all of us who are voting absentee either need to mail our ballots very early (as in the day we receive them) or we need to drop them in ballot boxes in our communities. I delivered my primary ballot to the drop box in front of our town hall, and I will do the same with the ballot for presidential election on November 3rd.

Eleven Films published a short video following the DNC, with this announcement:

BREAKING: The #BlueWave2020 Trailer
Coming November 3rd, America will take back our democracy!

Click here to watch #BlueWave2020.

beach grass

The green of beach grass contrasts nicely with sand.

at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge

late season clematis

A clematis in pink adds color to the garden.

inland green

The inland side of the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge is wearing green.

back to the beach

It's mid-August, the greenhead flies are gone, and endangered birds have released a small portion of the beach at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge to human visitation. I headed to Parker River this afternoon for a walk about an hour after high tide.

The sea gulls were happy to share their beach.
It was good to be back!