Showing posts with label Spring Beauty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spring Beauty. Show all posts

Sunday, April 5, 2020

In Good Hands



One morning last week, just before dawn, we watched two yearling white-tailed deer play tag around the pond. They ran like the wind, their hooves scarcely touching the ground as they leaped in the air and splashed through the water. Once in a while, Bitsy (our name for the littlest female) would stop to catch her breath, but she'd sprint ahead as soon as Sundance (the youngest male) started to catch up. It was an expression of pure joy, and I could relate. I love spring.

A Carolina wren has taken up housekeeping in the creel on our front porch, just far enough from the phoebe's nest by the front door to avoid collisions. Now the wrens are busy bringing bugs back to their babies.

It's dark out this morning, and dogwood bracts on the coffee table appear to be floating in mid-air. Redbuds sparkle on the dining room table and wildflowers overflow small vases in the kitchen. Outside, one has to tiptoe to avoid stepping on a wildflower. 

These flora and fauna don't know that our country is in crisis. While everything around us is changing, a Rue Anemone pushes its way out of the earth and bobs in the breeze, right on schedule. It's a good reminder that their Maker and ours is still holding the world in His hands. We can sleep well. He is awake.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Ozark Spring Wildflowers

Toothwort

Johnny-Jump-Up

Bird's Foot Violet

Spring Beauty


After what seemed like a long winter, a wash of green is flowing over the landscape from the ground up. The first wildflowers showed up last month, the delicate Harbinger of Spring, then one Toothwart in its customary spot by the big oak tree on the forest edge. The next day it had disappeared, probably into the stomach of a hungry rabbit. 

After a few days of futile search, I found two more on the hillside above the pond, followed by Rue Anemone, and soon a whole patch of them were bobbing in the breeze. Now, just a month after the first sightings, new blossoms appear every day in rapid succession, their names as colorful as they are: Small Bluets, Johnny-Jump-Up, Bird's Foot Violet, Spring Beauty, Buttercups, Wild Sweet William, and the ubiquitous Dandelion.



Long ago, God made a promise to Noah, and He hasn't forgotten it:
"As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, 
day and night
will never cease."
Genesis 8:22