soon these poplar catkins are going to fall in heaps like drowned caterpillars along every one of my walking trails, and i will be sick of walking on them. but the beautiful secret of the unfolding seasons is that you are always ready to welcome the newest sign of the newest season as if you had never seen it before, even though you were full to the teeth last year of poplar catkins in spring, and blueberries in summer, and goldenrod in fall, and snow in the winter. i’m not yet ready to celebrate the next snowfall. but give me about eight months…

poplar catkins

arden hills, minnesota