Encountering Earth

I have been visiting my family this week and I am enjoying all the sights and sounds of the Jersey Pine Barrens. Lady Slippers, Pine Barrens False Heather (although I am loath to call any flower false!), sheep laurel, mountain laurel, huckleberries, lance leaf violet just to name a few of the amazing diversity of the Pine not- barrens! What has really thrilled me is the nightly call of the Eastern whip-poor-will. You can set your watch by them - every night at about nine pm. I have never seen one. They are nocturnal and so well camouflaged that they are extremely hard to spot. But they make themselves heard! The nightly concert reminds me of my childhood - lying in bed and being lulled to sleep by their song. Now the chorus is a lot smaller. I wonder where they have gone. Habitat has shrunk; there are more feral cats; there are a lot more chemicals to poison the bugs they eat. Because of these threats, the bird is listed as near threatened on the IUCN Red List. This saddens me, but I ...

This Spring I have been reflecting a lot on dandelions. Their bright yellow faces have cheered me. Their hardiness and resilience have encouraged me. They are everywhere and so taken for granted!   They are mowed down, poisoned with weed killer, dugout, and defamed. But children love them and relish picking fistfuls. The abundance fills a child's heart and imagination. My favorite way to enjoy dandelions is to eat them! First of all, there is the wonderful memory of "picking" them with my Grandmom Jule. She would never get them around the house, even though there were tons because there were too many dogs in the neighborhood. This wasn't an exaggeration because at one time the dogs outnumbered the people in our area. So we would go to the corner of the farm, back near the woods in the six acres of asparagus my dad raised and we would pick them. Now, this had to be done in a certain way! One took a knife and with surgical precision, inserted it into the ground nea...

The wildflowers are up and working through the leaf litter and duff to delight the woods. This weekend I went to the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville. The ravine - a lovely, quiet spot on the property was flush with flowers - trout lilies, red trillium, violets in purple and yellow, white and lavender hepatica, and marsh marigolds- bursting more yellow than the sun. These early flowers are so delicate; they hardly look able to grow in the cooler early Spring and to vault through the remains of leaves and branches. They are fragile but so hardy. These colors are vibrant and announce that winter is over and Spring has indeed arrived. I often wonder why nature spends so much energy on these flowers. I understand the flowers of trees - they yield leaves, the flowers of vegetables produce all kinds of edibles. But these wildflowers don't bear fruit, of course, they produce seeds. But why? Beauty. Beauty is nature's way of being actually. Beauty entices and attract...

My favorite spot, besides our park, is definitely Vischer Ferry Preserve. I went there on Saturday morning- I thought it was early- 9:30 but a lot of folks were there and the parking lot was full. I love seeing the families out walking. Really, the kids lead the parents in noticing things and being enthralled with rocks on the path and birds flying by. I met this little guy named David. He is about two with a huge smile and absolute enthusiasm for "nature". His parents said that he woke up all excited to go into nature that day. David looked all around and noticed my binoculars. His parents decided he should have a pair so he could see the birds better. They moved on, assuring David that next time we might be able to "bump fists". They were eager to see the painted turtles that I told them about. I think one of the best gifts parents and relatives and friends can give a child is an outlet for this biophilia that is naturally theirs. They need time and space and a m...

Spring is tentative about coming because the nights have been cold. We had snow last Friday and Saturday! But Spring will only be held back for so long. This week the flowers of the trees are coming out - red for the maples, yellow-green for the poplars, tan for the alder catkins. The skunk cabbage has unfurled from its sheath of pale green splashed with maroon to large heart-shaped leaves that fill the swampy places. Coltsfoot is up smiling yellow and shyly from the side of the trail. Bloodroot's fragile white petals are fearless coming through the dead leaves. Early wildflowers are trying to send up tiny tender leaves - trout lilies, starflower - just promising to burst forth in a week or so. The blessing of this time is time to amble and look - really look at the small things like new shoots. What are you seeing as you take time this Spring? (image credit: Wikipedia)

I have been walking every day. It really is great to get out and watch Spring unfold. Nature seems undisturbed by our struggles with the Coronavirus. What a switch! We are usually disturbing her and now the roles are reversed! Will we stop to consider our impact on Creation? Will we just return to our ways of wanton consumerism and destruction? But nature is simply being her Springtime self. At Vischer Ferry this week I was blown away by the sounds of the frogs. I know one of the species is Spring peepers. But I heard other frogs too. Perhaps wood frogs? Creaking and trilling. The sound was so loud! Painted turtles congregated on logs, unmindful of social distancing. A piliated woodpecker was excavating a nesting hole. His? Her? large body would all but disappear into the hole, do some chipping away and pop out. Very interesting, since piliated woodpeckers create large rectangular holes in trees and this hole was perfectly round. It seems like the hole was made by another woodpecker s...

Spring arrived on March 19, St. Joseph's Day, so I went out looking for evidence of it. Saturday I went to Five Rivers searching especially for Wood Ducks. I saw Black Ducks and Mallards and lots of Geese, but no Wood Ducks. Painted Turtles had ventured out to sun themselves on logs. Spring Peepers and Wood Frogs were cacophonous! Honeysuckle leaves were just easing open, checking out the weather. Willow branches had turned their yellowish golden color, swaying in the breeze. Pussy willows bloomed with buds of soft whitish "toes". Maples were budding too in a rich crimson. Alders sported their cat-kins. I found a lovely sun-soaked spot where colt's foot smiled their sweet yellow flowers. No Wood Ducks Sunday I went to Vicher's Ferry. The day struggled to get out of the 30's, but the sky was bright blue. Wigeons, Ring-Necked Ducks, Black Ducks, Mallards, Gadwalls, Canada Geese by the score. Red-winged Blackbirds flashed orange-red shoulder patches and called r...