#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Today, two pictures, tansy and a pickerel frog, taken spontaneously. Frog jumped by me while I was weeding, he jumped as high as my knee, so I found him remarkable. And, in my late afternoon walk home from Farm Pond up the railroad tracks I saw the lovely tansy in full bloom for the first time this summer.

Common Tansy. The scent is similar to that of camphor with hints of rosemary. The leaves and flowers are toxic if consumed in large quantities. ~ Wikipedia

The pickerel frog (Lithobates palustris) In case of attack, pickerel frogs have a defense mechanism: they emit skin secretions which are irritating to people and toxic to some predators; making the pickerel frog the only poisonous frog native to the United States. ~ Wikipedia

As it turns out, both are poisonous. And then I found a surprising poem, Tansy, by the poet Brett Warren, whose work I didn’t know, about Tansy as an abortifacient.

Just some random thoughts about my nature finds today. Today, I am really tired. Busy, but so tired from yesterday, and happy to be tired because it was a lovely day. Wave came home today. And I woke early enough to work on my poem for workshop. I was pleased with the result. It’s all an experiment. I am finding my way. Also brought it tonight and got helpful feedback from tonight’s workshop. Frank made dinner after Farm Pond where we all had a swim, including him. Sunny and warm all day, lovely summer. And rain in the near future. I am so psyched to be doing some weeding. Finding time to weed areas that have not been weeded yet this summer. The plants draw me outside. All the scents and sights fill me up.