Summer Solstice - Haiku & Limerick

HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE!!

I like to think of the summer solstice as a time to reflect on how lucky humans are to have planet earth. Throughout time, summer solstice has been a time to celebrate earth’s bounty and fertility. Unfortunately humans have forgotten how to live simply and instead treat earth like an all-you-can-eat buffet with no thought for the future. With that in mind, I composed the following haiku & limerick.
Note: Haiku & limerick created by me (not AI)
Earth images created by CoPilot AI

Protect planet Earth •

It’s not an all-you-can-eat buffet •

If not now, then when

Humans are supposedly intelligent

But our hubris is quite malignant

And if we don’t find

Humility in time

We’ll be dust in a New York minute

Hike - Burnt Lake, Mt Hood NF, Oregon

Hiked with friends and Buddy Boy (the dog) to Burnt Lake on the Mt. Hood National Forest, Oregon. The hike began in second-growth Douglas-fir Forest with huge stumps and evidence of fire all around. Not too far up the trail however, we entered the Mt. Hood Wilderness where the forest turned into lush old-growth Douglas-fir forest.  

According to sources, Burnt Lake got its name from the “Clear Creek Fire” that burned through the area back in August 1906. While the forest has grown back there was still a lot of evidence of the fire such as large, burned out trees, snags and logs. 

 Except for having to climb over a few large logs and fording a few small streams, the first half of the hike was pretty easy. The second half however was a bit steeper with a few difficult rock scrambles and a more stream crossings where our shoes got soaking wet. 

I think the streams were running a bit higher than normal due to recent rains and snow melt. Burnt Lake was beautiful and included a spectacular view of Mt Hood from the southern side of the lake. 

We also saw a fair number of wildflowers on the hike including pacific trillium, stream violet, calypso orchid & skunk cabbage. I hoped to see lots of flowering pacific rhododendron, but apparently it was still too early and the only flowering rhododendrons we saw were at lower elevations near the trailhead.

Pacific trillium (Trillium ovatum)

Stream violet (Viola glabella)

Calypso orchid (Calypso bulbosa)

Skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus)

Pacific rhododendron (Rhododendron macrophyllum)

Book Reading List - 2024

• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - By: Yuval Noah Harari 
• The Compleated Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Author: Mark Skousen
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Author: Benjamin Franklin
• Wandering Stars: A Novel - Author: Tommy Orange
• Meditations: A New Translation - Author: Marcus Aurelius, Translator: Gregory Hays
• Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors - Author: Stephen E. Ambrose
• The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300 - 1850 - Author: Brian Fagan
• Thank You for Your Servitude - Author: Mark Leibovich
• Birding While Indian: A Mixed Blood Memoir - Author: Thomas C. Gannon
• The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World - Author: Charles C. Mann
• A Sand County Almanac - And Sketches Here and There - Author: Aldo Leopold
• 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus - Author: Charles C. Mann