Fauna and Flora at the End of May

 Today as I sat at my drawing table I looked up and spotted this groundhog scooting across the backyard, very close to the house.  I've seen his hole back near the fence at the edge of the woods (which is really a hedgerow between our yard and the high pasture behind our house) with its huge mound of excavated soil.  Recently I found a second hole, closer to the fence than the first one.  I've learned that these guys can excavate many yards of tunnels that run all around underground with periodic entrances for safety.  Since coyotes roam in the back of our yard and in the pasture , this groundhog probably needs his extra entrance pretty often.

The groundhog stopped for a few minutes and sat on a paving stone by the back porch, kind of leaning on one elbow and surveying the backyard.  Jesse was off duty, lucky for the groundhog and probably lucky for Jesse,

Later this evening P and I took a walk along the new river trail, and I collected seeds that are already forming-- True Solomon's Seal,  two sets of them, the one on the left just beginning to ripen, and the one on the right looks almost formed but still green'  then a rose hip in process.  There's also a little fluffly aster-type flower that is making dandelion-fluff seeds, then a chive, and at the far right a pair of seed cases from some ladies' bedstraw.  Across the bottom is an odd triangular seed capsule on a plant that I do not recognize but that grows along the ditch near the parking lot by the trailhead.