I scootered out to the Kennebunk Plains yesterday, since it was an amazing summer day in Southern Maine, to see if, by any chance, the Northern Blazing Star was coming on to full bloom. I saw a few plants blooming on the south side of the highway a week ago, but only just a few. The main mass of Blazing Star is on the north side of the road, in the bigger section of the plains, but the plants on the south side always bloom earlier. I am not sure why. Alas, even on the south side, the Blazing Star is far from full bloom. And it looks to be a good year for Blazing Star. The plants are full of flower heads and the stands are particularly lush compared to last year. As it happens, I will probably miss the best bloom this year. i have only one more Saturday before I am off for several weeks of travel. This time next week I will be doing my final packing for a trip to Virginia for meetings, and then, as soon as I get back, I will be packing for two weeks of Bird Fairs, product testing, and birding in England, Germany, and Holland. And the Blazing Star will be going on without me 🙁

There is nothing quite like the Blazing Star show on the Kennebunk Plains in a good year. The intense purple of the thistle like flower heads crowds out the greens and browns of the grasses and fills the foreground of any view. Bees and butterflies feed on the pollen and nectar, and dragonflies hunt the smaller insects attracted to the Blazing Star. It is a lovely and lively show. Not to mention intensely beautiful! You can get at least a hit of it in these early shots.

Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. Macro and Rich Tone Mode. Processed in PicSay Pro on the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone.

And for the Sunday Thought. The Blazing Star show is all the more precious for being brief, rare, and endangered. The stands on the Kennebunk Plains are one of the last strongholds of the plant in New England. It is one of fire dependent plants of open grasslands…grasslands kept open by regular wildfire…or in the case of the Kennebunk Plains…by carefully controlled burns that simulate the wildfire cycle. There is not much of that habitat left in New England. And the flowers bloom only a few weeks in August, when there isn’t, in fact, much else in bloom.

In a way the Blazing Star bloom is like a moment of true spiritual awareness. Such moments are precious partially because they too are brief, rare, and in this very material world, always endangered. Blazing Star needs wildfire to sweep the plains clear of the thatch of dead grasses, stubble, and aging blueberry plants, and the invasive saplings of pine and birch, poplar and maple. What do you suppose is the spiritual equivalent…the spiritual wildfire? Perhaps we all need something to clear the thatch and stubble and invasive saplings that would choke out the Blazing Stars of our spiritual awareness.

Might this be a spark?