spring

Looking to the skies

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The past few weeks have been busy and hectic. The news reports have been discouraging and filled with the “bad news” of our times. I’ve found it’s been easy to lose my way and focus on all the negative. But I also know that I can choose to shift that thinking and focus on the positive – for me that means being outside and soaking in the real balm of nature.

Winter has moved aside and allowed spring to take over in the North. The loons have returned to the lake, diving and feasting on the fish in the shallows. The goslings have hatched and are now paddling by, surrounded by their parents. During dusk I can hear the whippoorwill calling, and in the night time there’s a barred owl in the woods hooting “who cooks for you.” The trillium have bloomed under the tree canopy, the lilacs have offered their sweet scent into the air, and now the peonies are opening their buds and busting into full and vibrant colors.

A few weeks ago I was lucky to see one of the brightest Northern Lights displays in many years. I watched in wonder as the skies pulsated with greens and purples, dancing on the horizon and even overhead. I was surrounded with color and I watched for hours, hesitant to leave my sense of awe.

And then a few weeks later I marveled at a huge pink moon rise in its fullness over the opposite shore. It first peeked through the trees and then gathered it’s light and slowly rose, higher and higher until it’s reflection glistened in the still lake surface below. It promised me a return the following night.

Nature had triumphed over my worries and brought back my sense of awe and openness to the world around me. And I truly believe that just like nature, love will somehow triumph over the hate and evil that we see so much of in our world today.

Signs of spring

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Spring has arrived in the north, and we are marveling in it’s colors and textures. It is all a great awakening from the cold and quiet of winter. Spring rains have brought green to our grasses, and caused the flowers to open and burst into bloom. The daffodils, magnolias, and crocus are all basking in the warm sunshine. The rains have brought gentle showers and also thunderstorms that roll through quickly and seem to clear in an instant. If we’re fast enough and the conditions are right, they also grace us with wondrous rainbows of color – sometimes even complete double rainbows!

Ripples

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Sometimes a photograph is a representation of the scene in front of us. And sometimes it’s something more. In this image I see a lovely sense of movement away from winter and the snow that is covering the bank and shoreline. The hints of a greening spring are evident and the trees’ reflection has a fluid and abstract look in the open water. There’s a blue sky overhead, dappled with abstract white clouds that shines down into the surface of the water. It’s all a movement and progression from one season to the next.

Hints of spring

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We are dancing between winter and spring. The calendar says mid-March which can mean any type of weather and conditions, especially since last year at this time we had over two feet of snow on the ground. This year is a much different story with record-breaking high temperatures and no snow, only brown grass and drought conditions. People are taking advantage of our early spring temperatures, and it seems everyone you see outside is smiling as though we’re getting away with something.

The lakes are loosing their ice, the birds are calling, the days are lengthening, and heavy coats, winter boots, gloves and hats are not necessary. I’ve marveled at daffodils and tulips that have pushed up through the ground, certainly a month earlier than usual. But I was stunned to see blooming crocus the other day while I was out walking in our neighborhood. Granted, they were near a wall that could capture the sun’s heat and keep it much warmer than the air temperature, but the crocus were a wonderful welcome to spring’s promise.

Deep down I know we have not turned the page completely as our forecast for the next few days shows a return of more seasonal temperatures and even some snow. But I’ll hold on to the crocus’s promise and know that spring will be here soon.

The fleeting time of peonies

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Here in Minnesota we have experienced an unusually short spring season and have quickly moved into the summer season. Our temperatures jumped from temperate to “just plain hot” quickly, and with that it seems everything has bloomed and blossomed at the same time. The lilacs came and went. Daffodils, tulips, poppies, iris, and peonies all burst into bloom together. It’s been beautiful and yet it’s also been overwhelming, and it seems that it’s now all gone.

But the peonies have always had a fleeting time of bloom. Their greenery grows rapidly once the snow is gone and the sun warms the ground. The tight buds form, then start to show color, and then the ants are seen all over the buds. Peonies provide sugar and compounds that the ants need, and the ants benefit the peonies by keeping other potential invaders away from the blooms. This year the early heat with temperatures in the upper 80’s and even 90’s seemed to shorten the already fleeting peony bloom. I felt like I needed to harvest as many flowers as I could to bring inside and out of the intense heat, hoping to give them a chance of lingering a bit longer. The benefit to me is it allowed me to savor their beauty and their scent so much more.