pear tree

Luminiferous Ether

Rae Spencer2 Comments

Luminiferous Ether

They imagined a substance
Something made and measurable
That transmitted light
Bore the spectrum from shore
To shore, from planet to planet

Star to star they embraced
Aristotle’s ether, confounded
By the idea of waves
Crossing a sea of nothing
To a boundary that moves

Receding edge of confidence
Calculated into stability
Into constancy, a cosmological
Solution to infinity, dark shadow
Of mass ungrasped, cast across

Galactic coordinates and mapped
Against math, logic to simplify
The special fields of time and space
Elegant descriptions of the refuted
Ether, the vacuum tension condensed

Intelligible, static notation collapsing
Observation and paradox
Particulate light and magnetic
Matter graphed into balance
The observable universe illuminated
By luminous equations

Trouble in the Yard

Rae Spencer6 Comments

I believe these are Eastern Tent Caterpillars. This afternoon, I found three of them roaming through the irises at the foot of the pear tree. I can’t find their tent, but I did find a trail of damaged leaves that extends well beyond ladder-height. And since I’m not in the mood for tree climbing, the rest will have to wait. Seems like a weekend kind of project, anyway…

I would love to be corrected, because there’s not really room in my weekend for a caterpillar hunt. If these aren’t tent caterpillars, please let me know!

Bees!

Rae Spencer10 Comments

Bees everywhere. Sparring in the irises. Lurking on the back door handle (ouch!). Patrolling the newly cut grass. Mostly, however, they are in the pear tree.

There’s a varied crop of weeds, should the bees grow weary of pear nectar.

And, should my camera grow tired of bees, there are plenty of other visitors in the yard. I hope these two decide to stay. I would love a nest to watch!