Photo of the Day: ‘Queen of The Meadow,’ Hancock Shaker Village, MA

Hancock Shaker Village, as I noted previously, is an attraction worth visiting for its wide-ranging insights into the culture of one of the most unusual religious communities ever to take root on American soil.

Yet, for anyone drawn to all that is visually pleasing, this living history museum in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts is especially delightful through its function as a working farm, with vegetables, herbs and a barn full of livestock.

In prior posts, I discussed some of these products of the soil, including monkswood, lungwort, and creeping thyme.

But I also photographed the “Queen of the Meadow” herb. It was not coincidental that I spotted its lavender-purple flowers on purple stems in August, because this herbaceous perennial plant blooms in late summer and fall.