There be dragons....

This post was delayed because my computer has been acting up. Chris worked on it for me and it's doing better. I thought some of you might be interested to know that dragons do exist. At least, they do in Maine.

One of the big crops harvested each year in Maine are low bush blueberries.  They grow wild here, often on vast, rocky spans called, "blueberry barrens."  These berry fields are lovely. In the spring they are the softest green, and when the berries are ripe the entire stretch will have a blue haze.  When autumn comes, the low shrubs turn crimson.

To ensure a good harvest, blueberry farmers burn the fields every two years. Native Americans were probably the first to practice this. Fire kills weeds, fungus and harmful insects, yet the hardy plants are able to spring back and produce fruit. Sometimes the fields are burned in the fall, sometimes in the spring.  This spring the distant areas around us have glowed with fire, and the air has had a smokey tinge.  We can hear a rumbling and roaring in the distance, and we know the dragons are at work.

Flames dance behind the trees that line the barrens.

Sooty tractors pull the apparatus that breathes fire. The earth vibrates, seeming to tremble before its advance.  Charred earth is left behind.

Behind the burn there will be renewal and growth. And sweet little berries will spring from the dragons breath.