A Season of Buds

Each day Bella and I walk in the back forty along the field edges, to Winterberry Pond, and back through the woods. Bella searches out her treasures -- special smells, an old piece of bone, dried somethings -- while I find my treasures in the emerging buds of our woodland shrubs and trees. The pace of new bud emergence is quickening as the days grow longer and warmer. The magic in each bud unfolds before my eyes, a set of leaves or flowers pushing out like a newborn bird breaking free of its egg.

Buds of the week

Butternut buds still holding tight

Copper-colored beech buds sharp as a spear

Lilac flowers peaking out

Highbush blueberry buds perch like Christmas
ornaments along their red stems

The fresh young crabapple leaves stretch toward the sun