Category: Spring

April showers may bring road walks

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Heavy rain over the past couple of days inspired me to make the most of the drier but colder day of the weekend. Rain on Spring trails makes mud, and when you add hikers to that mix you end up with accelerated trail erosion, so I decided to keep to the old logging road that doubles as a winter cross country ski highway and a 3-season hiking trail.

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What springs eternal?

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Mud season arrived early in the North Country this year. March brought heavy rains, high wind, and the early removal of bird feeders as hungry bears emerged from hibernation. April is a cruel month for hikers, with spring meltwater and muddy trails in the valleys and an icy monorail or deep snow higher up. This weekend finds me further south, shaking off the grey in my own neighborhood in the city.

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The flowers that bloom in the Spring (Tra La)

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When I was a child, my mother taught me the names of the native plants and wildflowers growing in the neighborhood, and to this day my distinction between flowers and weeds is, at best, imprecise. I like knowing the names of the things growing around me, and greeting them by name and season. The blooming plumes of aster are for me a more poignant harbinger of Fall than the first red leaves of the maple.

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