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| Wild Grapes |
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| Huckleberries |
I know it's not August because on my morning cycle of the Polpis loop I'm smelling the wild grapes. The Sweet Pepper (clethra alnifolia) is gone. At Norwood Farm, downy goldenrod predominates, and sweet everlasting is popping up. Asters are fewer this year, perhaps because of the drought. The St. Andrew's Cross (hypericum stragulum) is turning yellow and red and the grasses are brown. The huckleberries brighten the landscape.
The ponds are all mud: Norwood Corner Pond and the two on left of Pout Pond Road, Almanac Pond. Autumn Meadowhawk dragonflies buzz near the dry ponds. Th last Virginia Meadow beauties are hidden in the grass. There was only 1.28 inches of rain in August, .74 in July and .43 in June. That's 2.45 inches of rain this year, compared to 7.54 inches in 2024. On September 9, the Commonwealth raised Nantucket’s drought situation to a level 2, up from level 1.
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| Almanac Pond |
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| Around the corner |
Deer are everywhere now. There are 85 per square mile in Nantucket, compared to the Mass Wildlife goal of 12-18 per square mile for a healthy population. They have no natural predators. Last hunting season only 871 were taken from a herd of roughly 4000. Deer didn't arrive in Nantucket until the 1920s and now they are pulling petunias from the pots on my patio as well as eating the hydrangea and sedum.
The angle of the sun in the fall gives the land a different look. The groundsel tree (baccharis halimifolia or saltbush) blooms are getting ready to pop on the bluff. The clematis paniculata is blanketing hedges.
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| Flax-leaved Aster |
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| Marsh St. Johnswort |
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| Sweet Everlasting |
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| Corn Moon rises |
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| Autumn Meadowhawk |
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| Bush Aster |
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| Downy goldenrod |
