Sumer is icumen in

Summer is certainly settling in in central Pennsylvania. We're into the cycle where it gets hotter and more humid every day until a front moves through with violent thunderstorms to clear the air, followed by less humid and cooler air, and then the cycle starts again. We had a vicious storm pound us Monday evening - rain so hard the sound of it on the roof of the garden center where I work made even yelled conversation impossible, thunder and lightning, damaging winds... The wind was so wild that the fork lift that I thought I'd parked far enough under the canopy to stay dry got wet anyhow, and I ended up suffering a wet butt from the seat for the rest of my shift.

So now, two days later and my first day off since the storm, I did my usual amble through the Dykeman Spring Nature Park on my way to the grocery store and noticed a lot of tree limbs down and evidence of flooding in and around the creek. I also noticed that the warm temperatures and the increased dampness raised a lot of fungi in the forested parts of the park, and if possible the place was even more lush than my photo essay showed last week. Yup, Summer is definitely arriving (the modern English translation of the 13th Century Middle English of the title). Take a look!

A swamp boardwalk in the wetlands area of the park

Fungi growing along the trail in the wetlands area of the park

Wild Strawberry, aka Indian Strawberry, growing along the Upland Trail

More fungi, this time along the Upland Trail

A Red-tailed Hawk having lunch on the upland meadow; she'd caught either a baby Groundhog or a rabbit

And it's already time for the first haying up on the meadow!

Of course you know I couldn't finish without including the song that provided the title of this post. Click here to read the Wikipedia article about the song and for the lyrics.

Photos and text © 2015 by A. Roy Hilbinger