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?"

young face, ancient eyes

young face, ancient eyes,

a girl in a Disney dress 

leans on her father's back

In the lobby of Hotel Alhambra, a man holding a baby on his shoulder chats with the hotel clerk. The lettering on his white shirt reads "Excellence Playa Mujeres Mexico." His daughter, wearing a Disney princess, stands with upraised hand and downcast eyes, as regal as the first ruler of the Maya.

faerie hankies

faerie hankies glow

lacy white in the meadow

on a foggy morn

Every day I pass the same patch of wildflowers, blind to the invisible spider webs ensconced on the dead stalks. This morning the fog reveals their secret, outlining the delicate strands with sparkling dewdrops so that the silken cups glow like little lanterns in the dim light. As children, we called them faerie hankies, secretive and ethereal, or granny's doilies, like the white lace doilies that decorated every surface in our grandmother's house.
          The spider that weaves this sheet web is even more invisible than its web. About the size of a sesame seed, with black and white striped legs, it hangs upside down between two horizontal sheets, the upper one thicker than the lower one, with the whole contraption suspended from vertical threads of silk. The spider waits in the empty space between the capture net and its own safety net. When a flying insect bumbles into the tangled obstacle course, it tumbles down on the concave mat and gets caught by the spider waiting below.
          When I return home in the afternoon, the sun has burned away the fog and the faerie hankies have vanished. But now that I know where to look, I am able to spot the tiny spider, seemingly suspended in midair between the dead stalks.

sugar sand, silver

sugar sand, silver

waves, brown pelicans diving,

blue and yellow ferries

Our first sight of the beach at Xaman Ha' (Maya for "waters of the north") is on a cloudy afternoon in early March. Xaman Ha', renamed Playa del Carmen by the Spanish, was originally a small fishing village and rest stop for travelers from the great Mayan cities to the island of Cozumel. Today, Playa is a busy balneario, a seaside resort on the Caribbean coast in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It's a popular tourist city, though not as crowded as Cancún. We're staying in Alhambra Hotel, right on the beach, so naturally the first thing I do is walk in the lapping waves, laugh at the antics of brown pelicans diving for fish, and watch the blue and yellow Cozumel ferries pulling in and out of the dock.

with tattered black wings

with tattered black wings

a carpenter bee slowly 

circles a low green leaf

While pulling out dead stalks from the bed by our front door, I spot a carpenter bee on a silver dollar leaf close to the ground. The fuzzy golden vest above the metallic black body shows that it's a docile, stingless male. When I stoop to take a closeup, he just continues walking slowly in circles around the leaf. 
          This bee's ancestors have done a lot of damage to our house by boring holes in the cedar boards. They're so loud you can actually hear them gnawing away at the wood, and they leave little piles of sawdust beneath their work sites. I've spent quite a few hours high up on a ladder patching the holes. However, this particular bee's shiny black wings are so tattered, I think his flying days may be over, so I leave him to his solitary earthbound journey.