The Last Days of Summer

I think the last roses of Sharon are blooming on the bushes down the street. Today some artifact from a variety of tree unknown to me has shed some russet leaves that look like maple, but my old and huge silver maples haven’t turned yet and are called by many simply weed trees. Yet they soar seemingly to the clouds and I will have a while to wait before the delicious lemon hues appear. Already the leaves are starting to pale, although yet fully green. Some tiny late summer dandelions have appeared, nothing in comparison to the giant shaggy glories of the Spring. The poison ivy that climbs the trees in the distance has already put on its suit of crimson. What a beautiful and maligned plant. I discovered a small plant next to one of the silver maples that has black berries on it hanging  just like it was a tomato vine, of course I have no idea what that is, but it’s probably some poison filled dainty, so I won’t touch it. The elderberry clusters are all sagging now and drying out. Early in the morning the haze is coming almost obscuring the view of the neighbor’s apple tree. They aren’t even red yet. The apples down the road are growing bigger every day, and I don’t remember apples ripening so late, but I don’t remember things that I really never paid attention to. When I had apple trees in my back yard, all I remember is that the fruit was almost square from worms because I was afraid of any insecticides. But I sure knew when they were ripe, the little cubes would fall rapidly and be attacked by thousands of yellow jackets. I haven’t seen a yellow jacket yet either, but the mud wasps are still busy. This is the time of year some rather large brownish-orange spiders build webs that can go from your car to the fence and from the fence to the top of your roof. One year one of these arachnids built a perfect orb web right in the middle of the garden arch and would build these in the evening, yet every morning it was gone. I did find the spider sleeping in a rose, and the next evening she was back doing her architectural duties. This went on for at least a week, until one evening I saw her descend on a rather thick web appearing to be striving with another spider. Then I realized she was mating. Of course the smaller male spider became dinner and she never came back and built her web again. Now I think the whole purpose of these giant webs was to attract or entangle a mate. Somewhere she strode away with a belly full of eggs and after that I don’t know what. Baby spiders being born in the waning days of summer, where did they go? My Blue Jay would have loved to eat them, but the human won’t let him have spiders, she thinks they will kill him, but he was slipped a juicy one once and enjoyed it immensely with no ill effects.  The summer heat abides, but soon will give way to the call of the goose heading south and the winds will blow.

Tags: blue jays, spiders, summer's end