Summer life in Iowa is abundant! We can literally see and sometimes think we hear crops growing. The landscape is a carpet of varied greens – soybeans, corn, hay, oats. Moisture evaporates to form clouds, windmills pump water for livestock. Life can seem deceptively easy and slow.
Wildlife are active dawn to dusk. Rabbits forage on clover and plantain. Pileated woodpeckers call from the woods. Wrens, bluebirds and robins raise a second and sometimes third brood. Fish in ponds gobble up larvae floating on top of the water. Horticulture farmers keep pace with all of this, harvesting fruits and vegetables, getting them to market.
The Laughing Labyrinth is more than abundant and a conundrum. Little did I realize that the grasses so beautiful with their cascading stems would obscure the path. The wonderful lilies have little chance of blooming with this competition. Yet, one peeks through the maze of grass with its lovely yellow face. And, a compass plant has sent up a huge stalk and is setting blooms!
We move through the long days of summer, through the abundance sometimes without realizing how fortunate we are.
1080 Labyrinth 