spring babies

for some reason, i’m noticing babies this spring. maybe because spring came so late and it’s jarring see so much brand new growth on trees and branches this late in may. in any case, Iim enamored. but like almost any mother talking about her kids, i don’t have anything all that interesting to say about them. i just want to point these baby leaves out to all my friends and say, “can you believe how cute??”

baby red oak leaves

i had a dream

i had a dream last night that i had convinced our state governor to order all billboards in the state removed and replaced with lilacs and apple trees, so that our landscape would be filled with visual rewards to all minnesotans for their perseverance in living through winter. most dreams appear ridiculous and sort of offputting when you wake up. this one made even more sense when i woke up than it did while i was dreaming.

common lilac panicle (Syringa vulgaris)

your daily wild bouquet

i had a thought the other day that i could spend a year collecting a wild bouquet every day from what i found around me, and simply by the fact of what was available to be collected and assembled, the series of wild bouquets would be like a chronicle of the seasons of a specific place. and then i thought to myself, honey, you already do that. it’s this little blog you do called STILL. now will you get back to work?

signs of spring: dandelion, fiddle head, fern, daylily sprout, apple blossom

six years and still learning

i know i should know this. i feel like i maybe did know this once. but i can’t remember knowing it, if i ever did. anyway, somehow, after six-plus years of scouring my surroundings for raw material for STILL blog, i just discovered today that red oaks have delicate, dangling, male catkins. the leaves in this photo are maybe only an inch long. i know i’ve seen them before at this time of year during my walks on this same trail. how did i miss those beautiful catkins? there isn’t much of the color red on this red oak sample. but i am a little bit red-faced.

read oak catkins

heralds

the crabapple blossoms are taking a deep breath and opening up their mouths wide to announce, colorfully but silently, that a change of season is upon us. i am driving past mute choirs all day long.

blah

crabapple blossoms in may