Spring Into Action!

Last week the weather seemed more reminiscent of summer than it did spring.  Sunny and temps in the 80's demanded that I shrug off some afternoon work and head outdoors to capture all the buds and blossoms on the trees.  Our pear and plum trees burst with flowers seemingly overnight.  But one day I noticed during this rash of nice weather a bright red exclamation point on my Weather Channel app on my phone that alerted me of a hard freeze warning.  The rug was being pulled out from underneath sandal wearing feet!  So last weekend, with a chill in the air that indicated this warning was all too true, I headed to a local municipal woods that is known for it's naturalized bluebells.  I just had to see if they were a full month early like our blooming trees and capture some photos before this freeze!  Here are the results of my two day photo adventure that took me from sleeveless shirts to shivering with a jacket on in less than 24 hours.

By Charles Spurgeon:

Let us begin with the mark of beauty. There is a great beauty in a fruit tree when it is in bloom. Perhaps there is no more lovely object in all nature than the apple blossom; but this beauty soon fades — one shower of rain, one descent of hail, one puff of the north wind, and very soon the blossoms fall like snow; and if they remain their full time, speedily indeed in any case, they must withdraw from view. Much loveliness adorns youthful piety. The love of his espousals, his first love, his first zeal, all make the newborn believer lovely. Can anything be more delightful than our first graces? Even God himself delights in the beauty of the blossoming believer. “I remember you,” says he, “the love of your espousals, when you went after me in the wilderness.”

Autumn has a more sober aspect, but still it rivals the glory of spring. Ripe fruit has its own peculiar beauty. As the fruit ripens, the sun tints it with surpassing loveliness, and the colors deepen until the beauty of the fruit is equal to the beauty of the blossom, and in some respects is superior. What a delicacy of bloom there is upon the grape, the peach, the plum, when they have attained perfection! Nature far excels are, and all the attempts of the modeler in wax cannot reach the marvellous blending’s of color, the matchless tints of the ripe fruit, worthy of Eden before the fall. It is another sort of beauty altogether from that of the blossom, yielding to the eye of the husbandman, who has the care of the garden, a more ravishing sight by far. The perfumed bloom yields in value to the golden apple, even as promise is surpassed by fulfillment. The blossom is painted by the pencil of hope; but the fruit is dyed in the hue of enjoyment.

Here are a few shots of an evening fishing with a spring chill in the air.  My shoes were soaked with dew and my skin was icy cold when I went back up to the house....but a sure sign of spring in action is seeing my sister's ducks being attracted to the bobbers in the water, and watching bass, perch. walleye, and even carp being pulled out of the water!

The coolness of the evening while fishing should have let me know how chilly it would be to walk through Poland Woods, but with so much bright green adorning all the land and scads of blossoms out....it was easy to look out the window and be deceived that it was warmer outside. 

So here is a preview of a hopefully more successful photo trip to Poland Woods in the next week or two.  I just hope the hard freeze didn't kill these plants that were coaxed into coming out to play early, as I was!  Enjoy the shots below from the rest of my chilly walk in the woods and remember to stay behind the lens!