March 2009 Archives

I finally got out in my yard yesterday afternoon and tried to get caught up with the changing season. The wind storms have severely pruned my red maples, and I have already gathered enough stick wood to fuel four or five great bonfires. The grass is starting to turn a deep green and is growing up in uneven clumps throughout the yard (places fertilized by my loyal dog friend?). In the great seed husk pile under the bird feeder, hundreds of passed over sunflower seeds are germinating. The crocuses are possibly already passed their peak blooming, and the daffodils have fat flower heads. Down along one of the roads near campus, the wild daffodils were blooming all along the southern exposures. The lowest branches of my driveway forsythia are blooming, too. The heat from the concrete surfaces is pushing them weeks ahead of the rest of the plant. I brought a few flower twigs inside today and put them in a jar of water. They are adding some nice color to the top of my writing desk.

I am just back from Ecuador and the Galapagos. Many long days and so much to think about. It was an incredible trip!

There is, though, no "spring" on the equator (nor is there "winter," nor "autumn," nor "summer"), there is only an astoundingly consistent, year-round, 12 hour day in which the sun tracks, with tiny variations, across the highest arc of the sky...each day...everyday!