Ripeness is not “ready for eating,” no matter what the dictionaries say. Neither is it “mature.” Have a look. 
One definition is “sensuous and full”, as in “ripe lips,” and another “emitting a foul odour,” and another “vulgar.” None of these are ripeness, as they all have to do with eating. A better definition would be “full” of “completeness,” or “embodying its full opening before retraction in preparation for another opening.” This wavy-leaved thistle, for instance, will close up, and grow a flower stalk next year, in a two year cycle, before giving this fullness over to seed to open again.
Ripeness is a fullness of rhythm. It is the point where everything is potential.
It doesn’t come in spring. That is only the first hint of potential’s power to open.
Categories: Grasslands, Nature Photography, Other People, Spirit
Okanagan Okanogan 
Beautifully expressed, “Ripeness is a fulness of rhythm”.
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Goethe is making more sense to me all the time.
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He was a wise man!
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He learned humility over time and was probably the best-educated man in Europe. Only his sister was better-educated, by the sounds of it.
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Wonderful photographs. (The deer must see you as part of their world.)
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Interesting observation. I wonder if it’s true. The magpies sure do. The raven turns around mid-flight to say hello. Ah, but the hawks. They’re opportunists. They follow me, screaming high above, to see what I can scare, or what scares at their cries and which will then intersect my path and make a mistake in judgement where two fears intersect. The deer like my hedge. And my green peppers. They reallllllly like green peppers.
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