GOLDENRODS BLOOMING: THE SUMMER'S HALF OVER

GOLDENRODS...

...PROBABLY CANADA GOLDENROD

 GEESE, ALL IN A ROW

Friday,  8:00 AM.  63 degrees F at the ferry dock, 60 on the back porch.  Wind ENE, calm with light gusts.  The sky is filled with dark clouds and it is overcast, misty and foggy.  We have gotten three-quarters of an inch of rain so far.  The humidity is 95% but the barometer has begun to rise, now at 29.79".
   The goldenrod is just beginning to bloom, the one pictured is probably Canada goldenrod, Solidago canadensis, in the Sunflower (Composite) Family.  That means the summer is almost half over. There are so many species of goldenrod (62 in the eastern US and Canada), and so much interbreeding that only experts in the genus can usually offer little more than generalizations and good guesses.  I can sometimes convince myself to go to the trouble of keying out a specific goldenrod, and there are a few that are quite distinctive, but in general they are just  too much effort for me.
   The big problem with being an expert in a narrow subject is that one runs he risk of knowing more and more about less and less, so that eventually one knows virtually everything about almost nothing.
   Buddy and I went to the beach yesterday morning, where this family of full grown geese sailed past, like a grand armada of Spanish galleons.