Twelve Moons of the Year. July 02.

Significant sentences from The Twelve Moons of the Year by Hal Borland, a chronology of the New England seasons.

"Out in the stream a fish surfaces, slaps the water, and the circling ripples spread, gleaming in the sunlight, ripples like time itself." p. 192.

"Something about dragonflies speaks of remote times when there were dragons, even flying dragons, of millennia past....; hover and wheel in swift flight...; among our most helpful insects, feeding almost entirely on gnats, flies and mosquitoes." p. 192.

"Looking, listening, sensing, we know that this is summer's song; but we also know that no summer's song lasts forever." p. 194.

"Change, the eternal constant, subtly shapes days." p. 195.

"Garden tomatoes fatten, still grass green, toward August ripeness." p. 195.

"The insects drone, afternoon and night...." p. 195.

"The bright butterfly's wings hover among the roadside weeds." p. 196.

"Fly-buzz, bee-hum, mosquito whine, all are the sound of thrumming wings." p. 196.

"Some insect wings are incredibly swift...; the bee and the housefly beat their wings 200 times or more per second...; mosquito's wings make 600 strokes per second...; there are leisurely wings, too...big butterflies beat their wings only 10 or 20 times per second, and the dragonflies about twice that number." p. 196.

"Chicory is...one of the few wildings of the season that have a color to match the July sky. Some call it the blue daisy...bright as a summer morning." p. 198