I started the day with frost underfoot, grasses golden and more blue-sky. Back in Nantucket, a polar snap has frozen ponds and limited the signs of spring to mosses blooming and voluble carolina wrens singing and chattering. My early hike in Windswept Bog and around Stump Pond is wintry: grey forest with dollops of cedar and drops of lichen on trees. A single cardinal standing proud atop a maple provided contrast. It has been under 32 degrees for more than 3 days.
The hope for spring seems more pressing in this pandemic year. With vaccinations proceeding, it seems that with spring will bring with it a renewal of in-person social life, and a relief to suffering.
Meanwhile, daily life moves forward. Four white-tail deer on the lawn at 5:45 am; four long-tail ducks on the ocean at 9:00 am, four robins poking for worms at ten. All enjoying the ocean view while feeding. Cawing crows, soaring turkey vultures ready to feed on the weak ones.
Maybe I should focus on the mosses, inspired by Robin Kimmerer's Gathering Moss.
 |
 |
| Broom Moss, Dicranum Scoparium |
 |
| A sphagnum moss |
 |
| Fire Moss, Ceratdon purpureus |
No comments:
Post a Comment