At Sachuest Point these last few days the overly eager agents and super humming crew have activated the park attack machines to do a maintenance hack of the meadows. I’m sure this is a well planned and ecologically important project but it’s noisy and ugly ... though the same could be said for the many joggers that have been crowding the trails recently.

Saw a first Monarch the last week of July and though I’ve seen several Eastern Tiger Swallowtails at the north end of the island, I’ve seen none at the Point where now in early August the green, where it hasn't been hewn, is markedly aged and decayed. The spiny Thistle, now everywhere in dozens of soft explosive finales of seed in these surprisingly cool and not so dog days, has made the best transition and puts me in the mood for raw honey.