Emergence

/ J. F. Riordan

After a full day of work, I dragged myself out of my writer’s hole around 9:30 this morning to eat something and breathe some fresh air. Auggie was already racing, and even Eli oozed out the kitchen door for a little walk and some time with his green ball.

On our walk we discovered an enormous tree deep in the woods that had been completely uprooted and lay like a fallen giant. In the process it had taken a few neighboring trees down with it. Some of the daffodils are six inches high and others are popping up everywhere amid the hostas—which are also poking up. The blossoms on one of our big sugar maples have already opened—a record— two tiny blue scilla are blooming at the bottom of the hill where the turkeys gather, and a cluster of snowdrops are thriving among last year’s leaves.

Here in the midwest we’d usually call this False Spring just before Third Winter, but even though we have Lake Michigan to keep us fairly cool for a while longer, I don’t think Actual Spring is far off. At least I hope it isn’t because a heavy snowfall on our blossoming maple tree could bring it down.

It was a short winter for us, but at least we got some snow along the way.

12 thoughts on “Emergence”

  2. Yes! Early Spring is the best! I love watching the woods come alive with the beautiful new growth. You’re so lucky to have that at your back door!

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  3. It sounds like spring has literally sprung in your woods. The flowers are beautiful. We actually have two robins that are just completing a nest on the table on our deck. I don’t recall ever having that happen this early. March temperatures in Pittsburgh can plunge from 70 degrees to 20 degrees in no time. This will be interesting.

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  4. I just recently missed an exciting event at our suet feeder. My spouse saw a redheaded woodpecker for the first time. I have never seen one. We regularly see the downy and red bellied.

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  5. I love your reflections and photos, as always. Great to hear that you’re up and out of the writing hole for a bit. 

    In early spring, I often wander around my soggy perennial beds, and I laugh a lot when I see the first pointy green tops of the sedums and talk to the robins. I’m sure my nearby neighbors hear me … but who cares, eh? (yup, Canadian)

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  6. I meant to write yesterday, but life intervened. I have preordered the next book, because I read the others in just a few days. Then I read them again, more slowly and with even deeper appreciation. Then I found them a home in the special bookcases that have all the books that I re-read on a regular basis. ( I got tired of climbing the ladder to get to these in my regular library) Give Charlie my thanks for leaving such a great recommendation on his last Morning Shots! (Yes, I am one of those converts…😉)

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  7. We have a small backyard at our townhome with a 7 foot privacy fence around it and a small front yard that gets south facing sun, both planted with native plants, shrubs, and bulbs – no grass. The snowdrops have been up for about 3 weeks in the backyard which is more shaded. During the past week crocuses have come up in the front yard, Creeping Myrtle violet blooms have come out on the ground cover that stays green all winter, and yesterday the first daffodil appeared. We are just a few blocks in from Chicago’s Lake Michigan shore so we are within a small 6a band of earlier growth area warmed by the Lake in winter and cooled by it in summer. Our last two spring seasons have started earlier and been longer and cooler.

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  9. Sounds so lovely! You said it was a short winter, but due to your wonderful writing I felt I experienced a bunch of cold and snow! I was there for your lessons learned in tying a Christmas tree to the top of your car, your neighbor’s tree falling, for no heat except fireplace, I learned about what to do so the chimney draws the smoke up instead of smoke coming in the house… it was a real winter and I was there, wasn’t I? P.S. Yes, your writing is that good, even if my memory of facts isn’t perfect. 😊

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