The grass where I'm sitting is mown back, but you can still identify copious amounts of plantain rather than grass. In front along waters edge is some dying asters, prickly lettuce, mallow, and dodder trying to strangle them all. Behind me are tall grasses by the thousands. You can't compare Winter with the warmer seasons as the nature scene takes on a totally different life. Everything lays dormant beneath the snow.
Back to Fall, I seem to have small bees constantly swarming about me. They must be attracted to the White Clover growing amongst grass. I've decided I don't care for them though they don't sting. But their persistent swarming is rather disconcerting all the same. maybe their just bored.
As I move to sit under an Ash tree there presence ceases and rather I find the grass alive with small pale insects. The bees might've been attracted to open sunlight while these pale critters prefer dark Earth and shaded tree above.
Its an age-old contrast between light and dark. But why is preferred over another? In their world it is manner of survival. There is no good versus bad. No duality. You can only observe the environment in which survival is meant. They don't do anything passively. Life is never a passive thing for them.
Yet I write this as a passive hobby seeking enjoyment and interest. Out on the water small ripples keeping the dying lilypads moving along with the coming breeze. When Winter arrives you can see nothing but ice covering the once lilypad-covered waters. Ice as white as even the stalest clover is harbinger to changes. It never dies as quickly as it arrives.
The sun goes down as I attempt once again to identify the diversity of foliage in my backyard. It always seems easier around the lake as somethings always in bloom. The woods is confined under shade where nothing blooms so easily. I can hardly tell the wall of greenery apart.
As darkness settles over the woods I can see the interesting old oak thats leaning far out from the woods for years now. Despite the way it leans its a sturdy tree, never yielding to the high winds of late Fall and Spring. The oaks of northwest Ohio seems to always share that particular quality of sturdy strength that stands up against the elements.
Just as the lake harbors its own unique flora so does the land around and near the woods. First, going back in time this whole area was covered in forest of Ash, Oak, Maple, Elm, and Birch. Then someone came along to clear out the area interfering with the productivity of the walnut trees that harmoniously existed alongside the other trees. Many of these once bountiful nut trees had been the staple of native Americans diet. Though you can still find Walnut trees growing within the woods themself.
Growing up next to the woods I loved nothing more than hearing the evening sound of night peepers. The sun disappears under the leaves completely as owls and other creatures of the night come out to hunt. Its an obscure, but intriguing world that nature gives as a necessity to all living things.