Ruffles, Ridges, Twists, and Tangles

Iris opening…

A dead tree trunk…

Edge of a cardinal feather…

Raindrops on leaves…

Poison ivy…

and part of a neighbor’s trash.

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It’s Official.

Spring is here. Ramps are breaking out all over. Arla and I spent a lovely hour or so on a hillside in Pocahontas County, digging enough for a supper of chicken enchiladas with ramps. Good eating tonight!

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In the Bleak Midwinter

Actually, it has not been bleak. Some days it has been sunny and beautiful—but cold! We haven’t had much of this frigid weather in southern West Virginia this winter, and I welcomed the three-day excursion into the teens and twenties, not the least because of the ice sculptures that appeared along the Carriage Trail. Here are few more examples:

 

 

 

 

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Snowdrops and Raindrops

Today was the day. I have been watching a little patch of earth along the Carriage Trail for the past week or two, wondering whether last week’s spell of warm weather would bring out the snowdrops. The first green blades began to appear about four days ago. And then the weather turned cooler again; we’re actually having seasonable temperatures. I like the cold.

Snowdrops must be okay with cold weather, too. Once they decide to bloom, freezing temperatures don’t seem to daunt them.

Today was a drizzly, dreary day, and I almost talked myself out of walking up the hill. Had I done so, I would have missed this first flower, bejeweled with raindrops. It made the walk worthwhile.

Something always does.

 

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Sticky Business

This is the blossom of the wineberry, also called the Japanese wineberry or the wine raspberry. A native of China, Japan, and Korea, it was introduced to the U.S. in the 1890s, escaped cultivation, and is actually considered invasive in some parts of the country.

I am happy to be invaded by such a plant. The berries will ripen around the 4th of July, and, if I’m around to pick them, they will decorate my bowl of oatmeal every morning for a week or two. They are delicious. The word “wineberry” describes them accurately.

Collecting them, however, is a sticky business. See those little red hairs? Every one of them holds a tiny glob of an amazingly gluey substance. I have learned that it is a good idea to bring a couple of baby wipes along on a wineberry-picking expedition.

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All in One Week!

Walking has been a pure pleasure this week: plenty of sun, cool temperatures, and an amazing variety of blooming things! I certainly haven’t been keeping a brisk pace, however, because there are just too many wonders to stop and examine. Here are just a few, beginning with back-to-back jack-in-the-pulpits, above.

Above, a strawberry shrub. I love this plant mostly because of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem, “The Strawberry Shrub.” I believe that her description of the flower is also a metaphor for how poems work.

Lily of the valley. Blooming early, like so many things are this year.

The columbine—who could even invent such a shape?—and, below, a tiny insect taking shelter within the curve of the columbine bud. Really, this little creature was almost impossibly tiny. My camera can see so much better than my eyes.

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Sacred Spirals

So. The computer on which I do most of my work has crashed, and I haven’t had it for two whole weeks. That means I am doing a lot of walking, partly to pass the time and partly to keep from panicking about the computer and the backlog of work and bookkeeping that’s currently out of my reach. Luckily, it’s a great time of year for walking. Many wildflowers are blooming, and all sorts of growing things are pushing their way into the world.

When I saw these emerging fronds today, they seemed to be speaking to me about my life: telling me something about inevitability and time. Things will work themselves out. The computer will get fixed, or it won’t. I will retrieve my files, or I won’t. Tomorrow will come. Next week will come. These fronds will unfurl into ferns and flowers, whether I am sitting at a keyboard or walking up a hill, whether I am laughing or crying.

I think I’ll laugh. I think I’ll walk.

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Marvelous Magnolias

It’s that wonderful time of year when magnolias start to bloom. These are two of my favorites. I don’t know what varieties they are. The one above is in front of an apartment building next-door to Arlington Court, and the blooms are very short-lived. I always think of it as “Susan’s Magnolia” because Susan Skeen loved this kind when she was alive, and planted one in her yard.

The tree below is on Virginia Street, and is always one of the most glorious sights of spring, especially on a day like today, when the skies were cloudless and blue.

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Dead Starling on a Rainy Day

There seems to be a sort of visual theme in my life these days: overlapping patterns, subtle color combinations. I came across a dead bird on the road today. I took this closeup picture of its feathers, came home, and played one of my favorite games: identifying a bird (or plant) by searching the Internet. It didn’t take long to learn that this was a starling, and that its winter colors are completely different from its summer colors. The most helpful site, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, even provided a way to listen to the sounds this bird makes (kind of screechy and squawky, for the most part).

Too bad the poor starling had to be dead to provide me with this education.

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Come Close

This fairly inconspicuous plant is at the top of the carriage trail, and I have passed it hundreds of times without giving it more than a cursory look. The other day I bent to look at it…and felt as if I might fall in.

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