Step right up, folks, to Father Sky and Mother Earth’s Magical, Mystical, Midsummer Madness! See the night-sky shimmer with light and life! Feel the heat and humidity smack you in your face with the very force of life itself! Watch Earth and sky in their yearly dance — teeming with multitudinous life-forms! Make hay while the sun shines! Hurry, hurry, hurry! (Sounds like Summer to me.)
Making Hay— What a great old saying: “make hay while the sun shines.” How appropriate for this season. It seems that everyone is continually overtired from trying — almost manically — todo everything, which is very natural when we have so much light. This is probably so with many creatures. I know numerous species of birds are on their second brood of young now.
The Hawks are probably sleeping well after a long day of watching the youngsters fledge. So many animal parents are probably going through this, too, at this point. The Great Blue Herons are and will be back soon. Also, arriving shortly will be the gorgeous Great Egrets.
High Tide of Life — where the Earth meets the sky…There is no place more mystical on a Mid-Summer’s Eve than our beautiful Comeau, with Guardian and Overlook in the full-moon and star-lit distance, with the intervening distance crammed with life. Heat-lightning shimmers and Fireflies flicker to a chorus of cicadas, crickets, katydids and tree-frogs. Accompanying the aural and visual feast of this magical time is the raw sensuality of wading through the thick, superheated air. At this season one can feel the sky pressing down as the earth rises to meet it.
To my Pagan self, it is as if the Earth is giving birth and the sky is leaning closer, attending to her. If mid-winter is the time of dormant life and inner reflection, when the tide of life is at its ebb, this must be the peak of the season of life, our seasonal high-tide — when the Earth meets the Sky.
A veritable life-storm — We are past mid-summer now, the days are shorter as the season inexorably turns. In our corner of the Catskills, in terms of burgeoning life-forms, this is a rich, rich time of year, a veritable Life-Storm. We are literally surrounded by the fruitfulness of the season. The heavy, humid air we wade through is thick with insect-life (though not as thick with them as it used to be), including mosquitos now, nurtured by recent rains. So far, only the cricket part of our yearly “Cricket Chorus” is present, with the seasonal cicadas and katydids (hopefully) soon to join in. The fireflies are off to a good start, activity waxing and waning with ups and downs of the dew-point (an indicator of humidity-levels). Every species of animal is busily reproducing their kind and raising their young. Myriad trees and other plants are simultaneously racing for the sun, sending out new green shoots, making seeds and sending new roots down deep. The very topsoil under our feet is seething with countless forms of life — animal, insect and microbe. Have a great, safe summer everyone.
To reach Dave Holden, call 845-594-4863 or email woodstocktrails@gmail.com; also see Woodstock Trails on Facebook; rangerdaveholden on Instagram or www.woodstocknytrails.com.
Join the family! 
