Today, October 6, 2015, was a rare one in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It was perfect weather- just warm enough to be pleasant, with a cool breeze and low humidity. The sky was blue with several puffy, white cumulus clouds. And there was a feeling of "fall in he air".
I took a two-hour drive this afternoon through the Twin Valleys of eastern Lancaster County today, to experience nature in them, as I have often done in the past. That part of the county is called that because there are two broad, shallow valleys running parallel to each other from Blue Ball east about seven miles to Morgantown in Berks County, Pennsylvania. The northern valley is bordered on the north by the wooded Furnace Hills and a long, low hill on its southern edge, which has Route 23 on it. The southern valley is bordered on the north by that same long hill and on the south by the wooded Welsh Mountains. Those two valleys are almost completely farmland with two small villages along Route 23. There are several overgrown meadows with wild flowers still blooming, patches of deciduous woods, several each of farm ponds and streams, and the upper reaches of the Conestoga River. The Conestoga here, however, is not much larger than a good-sized creek.
Some of the flowers still blooming along the roads and in the overgrown pastures were asters with pale-lavender blooms, asters with small, white blossoms, goldenrods, chicory that have blue flowers and smartweeds with pink blooms. Those flowers will continue blooming through much of October, adding beauty to cropland.
Farmers were cutting alfalfa to make hay today. Many of the corn fields have already been harvested, leaving only stubble behind. Some of those harvested corn fields already have green rows of winter rye growing in them for a ground cover and to enrich the soil.
Soybeans fields have not been harvested yet and many of them are also grown tall with the red stems and leaves of red root and lamb's quarters. Foxtail grass is yellow in those same fields. And all those pretty weeds and grasses are loaded with tiny seeds that will feed field voles and small birds through fall, winter and into early spring.
I also saw the red stems and leaves of pokeweed and the fluffy parachutes of milkweed along some roadsides and in certain abandoned fields. Many pokeweeds were also hanging heavy with clusters of deep-purple, juicy droops, while each milkweed fluff carried its cargo of a brown seed on the wind. Though interesting and decorative to us, the berries and seeds will feed wildlife through the coming winter.
Also indicating that autumn is here, poison ivy vines had vivid orange and yellow leaves on them while Virginia creeper vines had strikingly red foliage. Meanwhile, black walnut, hickory and oak trees were shedding nuts, some of which were being gathered and stored by gray squirrels as part of their winter food supplies.
I saw a red clover field still blooming with many pink red clover flowers. And there still were many cabbage white and yellow sulphur butterflies fluttering from bloom to bloom to sip nectar. And, surprisingly to me, there were a couple of migrant monarch butterflies stopping to take nourishment from the clover blossoms before continuing their migration to certain forested mountains in Mexico to pass the northern winter in relative warmth.
I saw a wood chuck and some birds that afternoon in the Twin Valleys. Several turkey vultures circled in the sky without a single wing beat as they sniffed the air for carrion to eat. A red-tailed hawk soared without effort as it watched for rodents to catch and eat. Two American kestrels were perched on roadside wires as they watched the roadsides for grasshoppers and field mice. A great blue heron flew powerfully and majestically across the sky, probably going from one fishing spot to another. I also saw a few eastern bluebirds perched on fence wires as they searched the low vegetation for invertebrates to eat. And a small flock of migrant tree swallows careened swiftly over a recently mowed hay field to snap up flying insects in mid-air.
And as I drove from stop to stop in the farmland, I noticed a few each of furry caterpillars and grasshoppers crossing the road from one grassy roadside to the other. I tried to avoid hitting them as I drove slowly drove by them.
This afternoon was lovely with much beauty to experience. I saw the Hand of God everywhere I looked.
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