Wildflowerin' gone bad

He who limps is still walking. ~Stanislaw J. Lec

I love wandering in the woods to find the first sleeping plants that awaken from the forest floor. It’s something of a rite of spring for me, despite the fact that I no longer have to suffer through a cold northern winter. Many of these spring ephemerals, as well as being beautiful, are important food sources for the first foraging butterflies and bees that emerge. Many are even downward-facing to better serve the insects that cruise the forest floor.

A couple weeks back we took an impromptu Friday evening walk to the nature trail at Stone Mountain Park; a friend had mentioned that it's one of the best local places to see a few of my favorites. It's an easy 3/4 mile trail that meanders beside a stream. It was lovely; the azaleas were blooming and as a bonus we saw our first Louisiana waterthrush of the season!

There were many blooming mayapples - so hard to photograph nicely - and some pink lady slippers that I want to go back to check on. I found foamflower, I think, though it's much taller than what I'm used to seeing in NJ. The common name comes from the delicate white flowers that look like foam. I love the extra long pistils on the flowers that rise above the white petals like little golden crowns. Books say that these flowers were often presented by Greeks as tokens of their love.

We also found green-and-gold which is another favorite. It blooms in shady woodland places. So pretty! I believe it's in the aster family, so you know pollinators love it. We finished off our easy evening hike by deciding to head off the nature trail and into the forest proper.
 


We didn't get very far before we had to cross a wet area where the stream ran across a bunch of flat rocks. Despite being extra-super careful when crossing those slippery, moss-covered rocks, I managed to fall and twist up my leg. Bummer! Two weeks later and I finally worked up the courage to see a doctor today... the pain wasn't going away and walking/sleeping/sitting haven't gotten any easier. I have to go back for an MRI, but the chance is that I've torn a meniscus.

:-(

 
I'm studying up on knee anatomy (in between wildflower guides!) and hoping that rest and time and the brace the doctor gave me will fix it up. I welcome any suggestions for how to include/disguise this hideous-looking brace in my professional attire. I hope next time I'll be more careful; wildflowers are a risky habit to have!

Ahem

I feel so rusty at this, so awkward. It’s not so much because actually doing it feels funny, but more because of the contrast between how unfamiliar it feels to be here, and how entirely natural it used to feel.

It’s like returning to anything, I suppose. The yoga mat, or healthy eating… we don’t slip right back in where we we left off – or at least I don’t. It’s more like returning from a trip, maybe a long one. Abroad. I bring back treasures and memories, something tucked in my pocket, photographs, experiences that I hadn’t had before. I’d like to think I’m richer for this time away from regular blogging, but I doubt it.

At any rate, Atlanta really knows how to do Spring! Everything just comes into bloom at once. I wish I could bottle the crazy combination of daffodils-azaleas-dogwoods-cherry trees-forsythia-viburnums that is Spring here and send it to my friends who are still threatened with snow in the north. I wonder if we don’t appreciate the change in seasons more when it comes slowly? I used to think March was the worst… but here there were even a couple days when it was in the mid 80’s and I was left looking for shade beneath trees that hadn’t leafed out yet!

What’s blooming in your part of the world?

Parasoled

It didn't feel much like the end of summer today; Atlanta is as hot as ever in the middle of the afternoon. We strolled along the Belt Line looking at the art on display and found these two sweet little girls...

The camera's virtue

"The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking." 

-Brooks Atkinson

Elf's Orpine, a granite outcrop specialist

Rock moss and lichen

Fern unfurling into Spring

Rock moss and lichen, in a battle for dominance

Trailing Arbutus, a new find this year

Was has your camera helped you find lately?

: )

More signs of Spring!

Out with the cold, in with the woo. 

~E. Marshall, "Spring Thought"

A hike this afternoon at Arabia Mountain (my favorite local place!) led to a couple good finds. A very brave Jay scooped up this gelatinous mass of salamander eggs(?) from a vernal pool for me to poke and squirm at. There were lots of these (that I'm guessing might be Spotted Salamanders) and a couple of others that maybe are Blue Spotted Salamander eggs.

Very cool, kinda gross and entirely too squishy for my taste.

: )

The opposite end of the same vernal pool held lots of teeny-weeny frog tadpoles... could these be chorus frogs in my reflection? 

I'm hoping Spring is making progress towards wherever you are...

Snow birds

A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder. 

 -Susan Orlean

We had snow today in Atlanta... real snow that caused my school to shut down early. I just saw on the TV that school's closed tomorrow too... a snow day!

I spent the afternoon watching the birds in their snow-induced feeding frenzy. I sat on the warm couch and photographed them through the window as they scavenged bits of dropped seeds and suet or quenched their thirst at the flowerpot saucer I kept unfrozen with warm water.

I'm happiest to see the bluebirds so close; we have four or five at time at the suet feeder when the weather is especially cold. They bring other nice birds with them. A couple of yellow-rumped warblers are often around and occasionally a ruby-crowned kinglet even visits!

Pine warblers... we have what seems like a lot of pine warblers. It's hard to know for sure how many there are because the males chase everyone else away from the feeder.

And they chase everyone else off their perch on the fence.

And they don't like to share the flowerpot saucer, either. Such pretty birds, like a ray of bright sunshine. It's still odd to me to see them in wintertime, but what a treat!

Surprise yourself

May your coming year be 

filled with magic and

dreams and good

madness. I hope you read

some fine books and kiss

someone who thinks

you're wonderful, and

don't forget to make some

art - write or draw or build

or sing or live as only you

can. And I hope,

somewhere in the next

year, you surprise

yourself. 

-Neil Gaiman

Happy New Year!

Swapping the sun

October used to mean the last sunny Saturdays on the beach, the last warm days to throw open the windows, the last long rays of light. Life moved indoors to soup, flannel sheets and listening to the wind howl outside for a couple months.

It's not that way here; summer is the time to hide indoors with the windows shut against the blasting heat. I look forward to being able to enjoy time outdoors again without being drenched in sweat!

The earth still goes through her beautiful old cycle of change this month, however. Gone will be the sexy green heat and the cabaret act of summer. The sun's glaring footlights are swapped for a mellow gold moon. October's perfume is fallen leaves and wood smoke with a hint of apples. There will be chili again (and split-pea soup... hurrah!) and baseball for the hometown team (go Braves!)

What are you most looking forward to?

The sunflower farm

Boy... time sure does fly when you're not paying attention!

I was about to tell you about our visit to The Sunflower Farm, but then, poof! and 3 weeks had gotten away from me.

There's an actual festival here each summer, but I've yet to brave the heat and the crowds to attend. As it is, no matter how mild you think a particular day is, once you're out in the middle of that ten acre field, it's hotter than blazes!

The farm itself is beautiful and is a picture-maker's delight. I first heard about the place because so many photo groups visit it. I go to pick flowers, tho.

I'm not sure there's anything more cheerful than a field of sunflowers, except maybe for the bees and birds that visit it.

: )

I wondered aloud to the farmer if they sell the leavings for birdseed.

Nope, but they sometimes hunt the doves that are drawn to the seeds in the fall. That's okay, too.

There's plenty to photograph, here. Red (and green) tractors, old farm tools and a beautiful hummingbird garden. There's even an enchanted forest nestled on the back of the property. And if you want directions to the little local place that sells the best homemade strawberry-cream cheese fried pies, just ask!

Plus, you get to keep as many sunflowers as you can carry away for $15.

: )

That makes for many old mason jar bouquets.

Time

Take time to look into the eyes of a stranger passing you on the street... can you find the real person there for a tiny tick of the heart?

Take time to go wonder shopping...

Look up. What beautiful view is waiting just above your head?

Look down. Who's reaching up for help to rise above sorrow, hardship, a broken soul?

Look around your neighborhood... see the same old streets as if they're yellow brick roads with a wizard waiting at the end.

Look around your house... what could you lose and still be you?

Look at your work... when was the last time you fell in love with it?

Look inside... what are the secret unlived lives that you could midwife?

Stop the clock and look around... it's about time.

(Take time to set your clocks ahead tonight, too.)

Winter Solstice

Partridgeberry

"The year achieves another solstice as the great wheel of time turns with the earth and the seasons. Winter, by the calendar, begins tomorrow, though the year's shortest days have been upon us for almost a week. The solstice is a marker on the charts, but winter abides by its own schedule of wind and weather.

Since man was first aware of the changing seasons, the winter solstice has been occasion for awe and wonder and a challenge to faith. Hope and belief are easy in a warm, green world, but when the cold days come and the sun edges farther and farther south, cutting a constantly smaller arc across the sky, the imminence of utter darkness and oblivion seems at hand. Then the sun stands still. The turn comes. The crisis passes and the sun slowly climbs the sky once more, reaching toward another spring, another summer.

It was, and it still is, an annual miracle. Hope and belief were, and still are, once more justified. There is order in the universe. The seasons still march in their eternal sequence, and winter is neither pause nor punishment, but a part of the year's whole. Ice and stormy wind are inevitabilities, but they pass even as the leaf and the blossom, equally inevitable in their own season, ripen and are gone.

The year has its own fourtold truth, indelibly marked on the turning earth. Now we know it whole for another turn of the great wheel. The cold verity of winter completes the cycle."

--Hal Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

This December

I'm grateful for red sleds

Bluebirds

Evergreens

Gold stars

Silver linings

(and bottlebrush tress, of course!)

Dear June

I love your school's-out new-found freedom. Your sweet morning sunlight that tastes like past-ripe strawberries. Your just-right weather that's not too hot, not too cold. Your seventh inning stretches and horses waiting at the gate. Your sun-colored pines and blue-eyed skies. Your traveling butterflies and too many birthday celebrations. Please stay for a while...

A show of feathers

Untold stories

There are a lot of stories I never got around to telling last year... these are just a couple to share...

Waiting for birds to appear on the CBC in January...

A very cold visit to the NJ Meadowlands in February...

Shadows of the March sun at the carousel in AP...

Walking the High Line with a childhood friend in April...

Lunch in Asheville on the way home from W. Va. in May...

Playing with reflections and a new lens on the boardwalk in June...

A couple hours on the beach in July with one of my favorite little people...

Playing tour guide for a flock-mate in August...

A September visit to California...

An October visit to Savannah...

My first (and last!) raw oyster in Apalachicola in November...

Exploring back country roads in December looking for birds...

I hope to be a better blogger in 2012...

Parting glances

Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park is ~the~ place to see confusing fall warblers... the trees are young and small so, in theory, you can see the birds easily, down low.

I've had parts of 14 species of warblers there in the last couple weeks:

Most all of this young Common Yellowthroat...

The water-tossed mantle of the Black-Throated Green in last week's post...

The pale supercilliums of many Tennessee Warblers...

The briefest of looks at the yellowish wing bars of a Chestnut-Sided Warbler...

The white "handkerchiefs" on a handsome Black-Throated Blue...

The indistinct dull olive of a young Blackpoll...

(You get the idea!)

Are warblers still passing thru where you are or is it winter already?

Bad bird photo of the week

Swallow song

Swallows are starting to gang up on the wires here in the mornings... I love to listen to their conversations while I wake up with coffee.

I haven't heard a Katydid yet, but I can feel the natural world turning towards Fall.

What about you in your part of the world? Can you see Fall despite the summer heat?

Tell me how you know it's coming...

Shade x 4

I was only able to stand a couple hours on the beach in yesterday's ridiculously hot temps, but was glad to see the plover chicks had managed to find some respite from the sun.

: )

Anyone know how much heat is radiated off of beach sand in full sun when air temps are 100+ degrees?