Barn Red

This shot of crystal branches against the barn roof might just be my last of the frozen months (he said, with mock confidence.)

The jonquils are poking up through the sodden ground beside the house where the top few inches of solid soil is finally on a slow, prolonged thaw toward spring.

Spicebush is dotted now with barely-swollen buds, visible in the early morning light that spills over the ridge about 8:45 now with the longer days. A month further along, it’s wispy, lemon-yellow blossoms will be so abundant along Nameless Creek that it will seem like a golden fog in the coldest part of the valley along the old rock wall.

Skunks are active again–a sure sign of warmer weather ahead. Unfortunately, their early emergence from hibernation is evidenced by those places where they didn’t make it across the road to their girlfriend’s house.

And where will I migrate now that winter is almost past? What will blossom from the dormancy of short days? What will grow from fallow hours of contemplation, from the season of mindfully tending the wood stove to hold back the cold, once that cast-iron beast is put to rest?