local ferments

These crab apples are very likely fermented by now. They have been on the tree since last autumn. Very soon the cedar waxwings will show up in quantity and feast on these seasonal delicacies. It is said that the birds actually get tipsy, and will sometimes even fall over from drunkeness. I have never seen it myself, although I have seen the trees loaded with migrating flocks of waxwings. Perhaps this year will be the year!

crabapples over-wintered on the tree (Malus)

Jumping Ahead

I am getting ahead of myself a bit with these leaf bursts. I brought some red-osier dogwood stems in to the house to photograph the deepening red stems that occur this time of year. And without thinking much about it, I put the stems in a vase on the fireplace hearth after I was done photographing them. Two days later I woke up to this! While it is delightful to see, and a harbinger of things to come, we are not yet at new-leaf-bud-burst here in the North. But it was too pretty not to share.

red osier dogwood stems in late March (Cornus sericea)

One Day Later

Yesterday’s silver maple blossoms one day later. Spectacular.

silver maple (Acer saccharinum)

First of the first

In a typical spring I see pussy willows at least a week before the maple blossoms swell. But this year was different, and the first buds/blossoms I saw were these silver maples. You can see they are ready to burst open, and tomorrow I will show you what happened when they did. Bursting buds are not the first signs of spring; Where I live I tend to look for signs of spring in this order: tree circles, darkening willow and red osier dogwood stems, swelling buds, returning canada geese, returning red-winged blackbirds, the sounds of tinkling meltwater…and then the pussy willows and maple blossoms. The order can vary year-to-year, but rarely does. I think of it like a chain of dominos set in motion–one event begetting the next, and so on. Spring happens fast in the North. And after my year of distraction, I am here for it.

silver maple blossoms in March

Hi All!

I am back. I waited for the Vernal Equinox because it felt was the symbolic and right threshold date. I have not announced my return anywhere else yet. I am going to take this slowly at first and see how it feels. Last year was one of the hardest years I have been through in my 61 years, and I am still quite fragile. So I don’t want to make any big promises just yet. But for the time being, I will be posting here daily, just like I used to. You can see, I have switched to black. It also feels symbolic and right after the fire, but truth be told, I had planned to switch to black after the book came out (and prior to the fire). You will all be hearing much more about all of this as I move forward here. Baby steps for now. But it feels really good to be here with you again! I missed you all so much!
xoxo
Mary Jo