Daniel Boone National Forest · Laurel River Lake
Heaven is Kentucky in the Summertime
Summer Nature Viewfinder
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The viewfinder starts with summer, my favorite season. Spring, autumn, and winter also have their own treasures and will come into view as those records grow.
May
The rocky banks begin to flower.
Mountain Laurel opens first, its rose-pink buds loosening into white cups against evergreen leaves and gray rock. Goat’s Rue brings warm pink to the forest floor, beside a plum-brown moth and a tiny toad in the new green.
May
June
Summer green takes over.
Cumberland Rhododendron runs coral orange across the slope. White Mountain Camellia glows between backlit leaves; red slime mold fills a split log; apricot shelves of Chicken of the Woods and wax-white Ghost Pipes rise after rain.
June
July
The woods close in.
Color sits lower now, against wet leaves, mossy wood, and dark soil: an orange newt in its terrestrial teenage stage, red chanterelles like small flames, a freckled jewelweed pouch, Buttonbush at the waterline, and butter-yellow jelly fungus climbing a fallen log.
July
August
Late summer is saturated with life.
Cardinal Flower burns red against wet green leaves. An Eastern Box Turtle peers from a marigold-and-black face; an Indigo Milk Cap spreads storm blue under fern fronds; a Luna Moth shelters from the rain; glossy orange puffballs sit inside clear brown jelly; and a fritillary closes pearl-silver windows over cinnamon wings.
August
By late August, saturated green crowds the forest floor while the falling lake opens the shoreline again.