Seeing red by Valentine’s?

A few days back I drove past the wetland where I sometimes collect a few red osier dogwood stems to enjoy as February warms and a forced leafout happens in the house. I didn’t notice any signs of red returning to the bushes. Next week I’ll take another look and maybe collect stems if the ground is firm enough to walk on and any  water isn’t too deep.

red osier dogwood, late February

Photo by J. Harrington

I’m looking forward to see open water return to the Sunrise river and waterfowl return to open pools. As much  as I enjoy stability in my life, I’ve found I much prefer the transitional seasons of spring and fall to deep summer and the pits of winter, probably for much the same reasons I prefer fly fishing to ice fishing. I enjoy participating in change more than sitting and watching.

With the warm-up forecast over the next several days, plus increasing daylight hours, the plants may get the trigger they need to start their annual cycle of growth. After spending too much  of winter in my reading chair, I’m looking for excuses reasons to get out and about, to explore and scout. Looking for red stems by mid-month is a good one. If I’m successful, in a month or six weeks we’ll be seeing some green leaves on top of the piano and maybe later some cuttings to plant around our own backyard wet spot.

Walking Through A Spider Web

By Jeff Worley

I believed only air

stretched between the dogwood

and the barberry: another

thoughtless human assumption

sidetracking the best story

this furrow spider knew to spin.

And, trying to get the sticky

filament off my face, I must look,

to the neighbors, like someone

being attacked by his own nervous

system, a man conducting an orchestra

of bees. Or maybe it’s only the dance

of human history I’m reenacting:

caught in his own careless wreckage,

a man trying to extricate himself,

afraid to open his eyes.

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