spring, Bonnefield Lake

spring, Bonnefield Lake --

rippling reflections of water

grass stems in water

Illusion of a duck's head on a white mushroom cap.

Clusters of white wild blackberry blossoms on dark red stems, serrated emerald leaves.

On a stunted witch oak by the water's edge, spider webs festoon clusters of oak galls and the baby paws of green-gold leaves.

Explosion of kelly green leaves bursting through the slanted mat of last year's brittle gray stems.

spring at Bonnefield Lake

spring at Bonnefield Lake,

wild plum humming with bees,

couples everywhere

Early April but it feels like July, 88 F (31 C). I'm sweating as I walk around Bonnefield Lake after lunch. Passing a thicket of wild plum in bloom, humming with bees drawn by the sweet scent, I spot a pair of bikes lying on the path. Their owners, drawn by the water, are perched on the bank. Completely engrossed in each other, they don't even notice me passing by. A pair of ducks do notice me before I see them, flying off in a flurry of splashing water. And a pair of snapping turtles, sunning on a dead cedar tree a few feet from shore, slip into the water when I approach. 

gold fringed white blossoms

gold fringed white blossoms

clustered on the wands of wild 

plum -- sweet scent of spring

In March dense thickets of wild plums in bloom brighten the open margins between woods and road and along stream banks. Each delicate five-petaled flower supports a thick fringe of golden anthers on long white filaments, and every single blossom exudes an intoxicating fragrance that attracts pollinators and people alike. The masses of snow-white blossoms announce that spring is springing.

cotton candy pink

cotton candy pink

blooms pop from bare black branches,

beacon for long-tongue bees

This tree should really be called pinkbud or magenta bud, but redbud is easier to say and conveys the feeling of a tree burning with bright flames covering its curving, charcoal branches. The Eastern Redbud, native to eastern and parts of midwestern United States, puts on a vivid display in early spring when the showy flowers pop out from the bare branches and even the trunk of the small, spreading tree. The tubular, two-tone blossoms, cotton candy pink and maraschino cherry, are pollinated by long-tongue bees such as carpenter bees. It is a favorite ornamental tree in urban areas, but it is even more of a delightful surprise to see it flashing among still-dormant oaks, hickories, maples and elms in the woods and on the banks of rivers.

she wears a violin

she wears a violin,

a flute, and tulip colors

on a mint green bike

Birds of a feather flock together to flaunt their colorful springtime plumage and make music. Instant bonding takes place when Moon Love, an opera singer who dresses for the role every day, meets Phoebe, the goddess of the Moon, who dresses like a bouquet of tulips and plays a handmade violin with a rabbit head. Phoebe rides off on her equally colorful bike, and every day after that, Moon can be heard crying, "Where is my Phoebe?"

hidden behind

hidden behind

the daffodil's yellow trumpet,

a crab spider lurking

When I left for the Yucatan at 3:30 am in early March, the thermometer read 15 F (-9 C) and the frozen landscape consisted of dead brown grass and bare branches. When I returned ten days later, it was 86 F (30 C), hotter than the tropics, with green shoots of grass and early spring flowers all abloom.
          Today I sit under a pin oak beside a coterie of daffodils to take a portrait. With ruffled yellow trumpets held above the six pointed petals that form the perianth, they look like Renaissance ladies with golden crowns and white ruffs. I choose one and bring the camera as close as I can to capture the graceful shapes emerging from the daffodil's yellow corona: the three semi-circular lobes of the stigma at the end of the style and the pollen-encrusted anthers.
          That's when I notice a small black bug crawling up one of the columnar filaments. The next instant, a brown crab spider, lying in ambush, darts out from behind the corona, brandishing its long forelegs as if to say, "That's MY bug, back off!" We play a little game of hide and seek as I try to get a close-up of the spider. Meanwhile, the little black bug wanders off along the ruffled edge of the daffodil's corona. Just as quickly as it appeared, the spider dives out of sight. Game over, back to business.

water and plastic

water and plastic --

students learn the principles

of fluid dynamics

The heat index is 102 degrees, way too hot for late spring. Creative teachers at MSAE in Fairfield, Iowa, take classroom outside, to a water slide set up on the hill near the school, where the students have great fun learning how fluids, smooth surfaces, slopes, mass, velocity, and gravity all work together.

late winter birth time

late winter birth time –

ewe with twin lambs, black and white,

huddling by her side

A week before spring equinox, still below freezing at night, but it is birthing time for many animals living in the open. This ewe wears her thick winter coat but the lambs are born with only a light fleece. When I appear she is cropping the new shoots coming up through the dead grass while the twins lie by her side. The lambs scramble to their feet and huddle on either side of their mother, who lifts her head and gives me a hard stare.