Figure 1 – Monarch butterfly on purple phlox, Rock Meadow Conservation Area, Belmont, MA, August 1, 2020. (c) DE Wolf 2020.

These are truly the glory days of summer, hot with luscious evening light. Such an afternoon was this past Saturday, and we visited the Rock Meadow Conservation Area in Belmont, MA. The flowers and the light were glorious, and the world was alive with buzzing bees and alighting butterflies. Figure 1 will serve as remembrance on a cold January day come winter. It shows a monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) dining on the nectar of a splendid display of pink phlox (Phlox maculata). I speak in superlatives because that is precisely what is needed to mentally make it through the current insanity. 

I read an interesting article about how we can return to Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and the writings of Aldo Leopold in the 1930’s, both of whom record the dates of first flowering of species such as phlox, to find evidence of climate change. Systematically, over the course of some 160 years, flowers first appear earlier and earlier due to global warming. Indeed, flowers in Massachusetts typically appear six weeks earlier than they did in Thoreau’s time.

I guess that it all comes together in the very simple message to the fools in Washington, DC. Science is unrelenting. In science, Kellyanne, there are no “alternative facts“. Viruses and flowers obey the laws of nature, not political hype and fantasy.

Canon T2i with EF70-200L f/4.0 USM lens at 135 mm, ISO 800, Aperture Priority AE mode, 1/1300th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation. 

Figure 1 – Mr. Pili takes the time to smell the flowers, July 2020. Belmont, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2020.

My love of cats will come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog. So, today I wanted to share this photograph of Mr. Pili, who is outwardly a beautiful cat and inwardly a great philosopher. Mr. Pili joined us for a lovely Summer’s Saturday brunch on the deck. He paused a moment from basking in our adoration to smell the flowers. As always he taught us just a bit more about the important things and moments in life!

Figure 1 – American Yellow Lotus, Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge , Concord, MA, July 2020. (c) DE Wolf 2020.

And finally in Figure 1, we have the lotus flower itself – The North American or Yellow Lotus (Nelumbo lutea). The lotus is such a beautiful flower; so delicate and complex in structure. It brings such beauty to our world.

The mythic symbolism, particularly in Buddhism and Hinduism arguably evolves from the fact that the lotus grows in the most fetid of ponds and serves to purify the water. Both Vishnu and Lakshmi are often portrayed standing on and holding a lotus blossom. This image is repeated in the west by the birth of Venus on the half shell.  Venus stands in the half shell as perfect in beauty as a pearl. The profoundest of myths of the lotus is that of Lord Brahma sitting in the lotus flower that grows from the navel of the sleeping Lord Vishnu. Each morning the lotus flower opens and each night it closes. These symbolize the eternal pattern of birth, death, and resurrection. Each cycle of opening and closing represents a life in the journey.

The western parallel is equally profound and equally focuses on the trinity of birth, death, and resurrection. In the great Cathedral at Chartres, we find the famous Jesse window.  This stained-glass triumph of medieval art shows a supine Jesse out of whose loins grows the ancestral tree of David to Mary to the Christ. 

“Et egredietur virga de radice Iesse et flos de radice eius ascendet.” 

“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots”

Isaiah 11.1

To see a lotus blossom, especially as I did on this summer’s day surrounded by thousands of lotus flowers, each of equal beauty, one can not help but realize that it is much more than a flower. It is symbolic of everything and every time.

“Everything turns in circles and spirals with the cosmic heart until infinity. Everything has a vibration that spirals inward or outward — and everything turns together in the same direction at the same time. This vibration keeps going: it becomes born and expands or closes and destructs — only to repeat the cycle again in opposite current. Like a lotus, it opens or closes, dies and is born again. Such is also the story of the sun and moon, of me and you. Nothing truly dies. All energy simply transforms.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

Canon T2i with EF70-200 mm lens at 200 mm, ISO 200, Aperture priority AE Mode 1/640th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1- Lotus leaf holding water – the warp in space-time that is the universe. (c) DE Wolf 2020.

The lotus mythically and philosophically is representative of the sequence of birth, life, death, and resurrection. And this sequence perpetuates infinitely. In short, the lotus is the universe. Last Saturday I saw these lotus leaves holding giant water drops. This is shown in Figure 1. A dear friend, and lotus lover, led me to see this differently. I recognized that in that pattern is the warp in spacetime that defines the universe. It is the juncture of science and myth, which was, after all, never very far away.

“As a lotus flower is born in water, grows in water and rises out of water to stand above it unsoiled, so I, born in the world, raised in the world having overcome the world, live unsoiled by the world.”

Canon T2i with EF 70-200 F/4.0L USM lens at mm, ISO 200, Aperture priority AE Mode 1/400th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Cattails, loosestrife, and Queen Anne’s lace. July 25, 2020, Great Meadows national Wildlife Refuge, Concord, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2020.

In Figure 1, I have tried to capture the essence of a hot and humid mid July day. It was taken at the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Concord, MA. Quintessential to summer in New England are the cattails, loosestrife and Queen Anne’s lace. I love the way that all the plant forms are vertical as they reach up to the sun and sky. The vertical lines, I believe, great a dynamic sense in the photograph as if all things are rushing upwards.

Canon T2i with EF 70-200 mm f/4.0L USM lens at 126 mm, ISO 800, Aperture Priority AE mode at 1/400th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Blue dasher on a lotus bud, Great Meadows national Wildlife Refuge, Concord, MA. July 25, 2020. (c) DE Wolf 2020.

Continuing with yesterday morning’s heat visit to the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Concord, MA I took the image of Figure 1, which truly captures a sacred pair of memes. The lotus blossom is symbolic of the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. The dragon fly is an object of magic and imagination. Here we have the beautiful and iridescent blue dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis) spreading its delicately constructed wings in the warm sunlight. The appeal of the dragonfly is the hovering flight and their magical ability to catch the light as if they themselves were on fire.

“Dragonflies are reminders that we are light and we can reflect light in powerful ways if we choose to do so.”
― Robyn Nola

Canon T2i with EF70-200 mm F/4.0L USM lens at 200 mm, ISO 200, Aperture Priority AE Mode 1/250 th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation. 

Figure 1 – Eastern Black swallowtail on Loosestrife, Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Concord, MA., July 25, 2020. (c) DE Wolf 2020.

The heat of summer and the plague rule us now! In this morning’s heat we wandered over to Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Concord, MA and delighted in photographing the blooming lotus blossoms, the birds, the flowers and the butterflies. Ignoring the strife around us here is an eastern black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) sipping on the nectar of some gorgeous loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria). Focus on the beauty in the world, my friends.

Canon T2i with EF70-200 mm f/4.0L USM lens at 135 mm, ISO 200, Aperture Priority AE Mode 1/400th sect at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation. 

Figure 1 – Passion Pink Coneflowers with bumblebee. Salem Maritime National Historic Site, July 2020, Salem, MA.

I continue to be intrigued and delighted this season by all the glorious shades of the cone flowers. And invariably they are accompanied by bumblebees. Today I encountered these beautiful passion pink flowers and captured the bee close up right on top of the flower. The iPhone is excellent for this.

Figure 1 – Comet Neowise over the Danvers River in Salem, MA, July 20, 2020. (c) DE Wolf 2020.

On July 20, 1963, a very young David was with his father and telescope viewing a solar eclipse in Sullivan County, NY. My passion was ascending to the zenith of science geekdom. In those days, I would have loved to photograph what I saw – especially the silent, cool, luminescent sights in the late evening or early morning twilight skies. It was time to dream. So last night binoculars, telephoto, and tripod in hand I went out to attempt to find comet Neowise as it approached to kiss the Earth.

There were the expected problems. First, was finding it against the background light. Ultimately I could see it both in my binoculars and with the unaided naked eye. Second, was getting my tripod’s camera easy mount to lock in the dark. Third, sighting my camera on it was another story, since I couldn’t see it in the viewfinder. And fourth, there was the dreaded “M” or manual mode. I had preset everything, but my camera refused to shoot, and I finally realized that I needed to turn off the autofocus. So voila friends, here is Neowise, hovering gloriously over the Danvers or North River in Salem, MA. 

Despite the light pollution, this comet evokes all the magic and marvel of comets. There is the bright core and the nebulous and spectacular tail. And there is the sense of wonder and predilection. The David of 2020 thanks this beautiful comet on behalf of himself as well as the boy of 1963.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 70 mm, ISO 800, Manual Mode 15 sec at f/4.0.