Black-eyed Susan

Blooming now in the hayfield we walk through on our regular walks. It still hasn't been cut and we're beginning to think it won't be. In recent past years the field has been rented and sometimes part of it has been planted with corn (for silage, I'm thinking - not sweet corn), the rest cut for hay. But this year maybe no one is renting it? The woman who owns the land has moved from her house to a retirement place, I think - and our neighbor who has a house next door to us and another at the top of the hill across from the hayfield has been managing her property for her to some extent. I think. Maybe. I don't really know. In any case, it is interesting to see the weeds that usually get mowed down in late May or early June being allowed to flower and go to seed. Probably good for a lot of insects and birds. Not so good if the field is left uncut for years and becomes taken over by red cedars and a succession of other trees. I was happy it wasn't mowed this year because there are always meadowlarks nesting in it and I worry about them getting their young fledged before the mowing happens. But if the field becomes a woods there will be one less field for them to nest in. Everything changes...