a freebie

these grape hyacinth are hyacinths in name only. their real name is muscari, an old-world flower native to the mediterranean basin. i acquired them as a freebie from my mom. last year she gave me a spent basket of mixed spring bulbs–you know the kind–and i took it home and unceremoniously plunked it into the soil beside my driveway, and quickly forgot all about it. this week i got handful of (real) pink hyacinths and these grape muscari. gotta love a good freebie.

grape hyacinth (Muscari)

impermanence

i left those tender new-growth-green baby bur oak leaves i photographed two days ago on my kitchen floor where i had photographed them. this morning, they looked like this, with all the shades of olive and khaki one typically sees in autumn. i love how the delicate pointed leaf tips, barely noticeable in the first photo, have curled up into little claws in these dried leaves.  it give the image a “wait a minute, what kind of leaves are these?” hesitation that makes it more interesting than an ordinary spill of autumn leaves.

dried up baby spring bur oak leaves

and just like that

spring was delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed and then it got shot out of a cannon. so now, we have crocuses, hyacinths, daffodils, trilliums, pussy-willow, forsythia, catkins, spring ephemerals, maple blossoms, ferns, apple blossoms, and soon lilacs all exploding into life at the same time. boom. boom. boom. i thought it might be a fast spring, but this is giving me whiplash. zero to sixty in two weeks. maybe when we hit lilac season, things will settle down a bit. wait. we already hit lilac season. ok, maybe when the jack-in-the-pulpits appear . . . wait. OK maybe when the buttercups bloom.

crabapple blossoms

brought into reach

often, these tender baby leaves are out of reach for me. most of the trees in my woods are mature, and their lowest branches often start about 3-4 meters off the ground. but this spring, steve and are cutting down a few volunteer trees, so we can open up some sunshine, and replace them with native and edible tree varieties. [steve has gotten very into northern permaculture and edible forests. more on that later.]   so, somewhat sadly, these leaves were brought into reach for me today when we felled a young bur oak that had sprouted up in an inconvenient location. i think it might be the first living tree we have felled on our property. it feels weird. we plan to replace it with a serviceberry tree next week. but still. it didn’t feel quite right. but it did give me access to these new-growth-green (with a hint of red) baby oaks leaves.

baby bur oak leaves

new growth green

new growth green is one of my favorites: lime. chartreuse. pear. yellow-green. acid. limeade. spring bud. i’ve searched a hundred color charts looking for the best name for this color. and while i have never seen the term used elsewhere, i have found no better description than my own: new-growth-green. my fav.

baby poplar leaves