Return

 

We took the boat back to Nantucket  on the first day of the new summer-y schedule.  The air is lively with that earlier spring of light greens reaching into a blue sky, red catkins and new growth, crabapple petals carpeting the ground, lilacs blooming.

We’ve missed the amelanchier shad and the cherries flowering, but  now the winds seem less harsh than earlier in the spring.  We even have some late narcissus blooming in the garden, although the island-wide show is done.

The beach plums are in full bloom all over the island;  this year I vow to make a map so that when they ripen, we have lots of places to look.  My Polpis bike loop is with towhees, Carolina wrens, chipping sparrows, pine warblers,  yellow warblers, common yellowthroats- I had forgotten how many of them are singing at this time of year.

Birds are the sounds of the spring, as they declare their territories, find mates,  and declare the dawn.