The woods are starting to look less like spring, and more like summer, even though we’re not even through April yet: the poison ivy has begun its inexorable spread across the forest floor and up into the trees. I’m not especially allergic to poison ivy, fortunately, but I do try to avoid stumbling around in it wherever possible. Continue reading
I had just a little time to take a walk in the woods before the sun went down tonight. Spring is proceeding at a brisk pace: the dogwoods are almost gone, but a number of other wildflowers have begun to take their place. Continue reading
Today the weather feels more like early summer than early spring. This afternoon I took a break from the computer to take a stroll down into the valley behind the house — with the camera, of course — to see what was going on down there. This early in the season the poison ivy hasn’t taken over yet, so it’s possible to get off the beaten path a bit. Continue reading
The crane flies are out and about this evening.
These creatures are a familiar sight everywhere during their brief mating season each year — flimsy tangles of thready legs and cellophane wings smacking into window screens and lampshades, dangling from spider webs, drowning in teacups, the survivors finally disintegrating after a few days into a litter of disorganized limbs under the porch light. Continue reading
Although we call them mountains, the Ozarks are really just the eroded remains of primeval sea-bottom, lifted by the pressures of continental drift, then cut and carved and gouged by a couple of hundred million years of water and wind. Even in the greenest spots, the ancient rocks are never far away: the Ozark ecosystem is a thin skin of life stretched over a broken skeleton. Continue reading
We got a brief break in the rain this afternoon, and I ran out the door with the camera. Tomorrow, I’m told, the rain resumes, but for a few hours Spring was very much in evidence in here in the Ozark foothills.
Tonight I took a little stroll down into the valley below the cabin, just about sunset. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!
