Don't Blink

Spring came on fast at Iowisota, with plenty of rain and warm temperatures in April. Thankfully things slowed down a bit with the drier and cooler weather so far in May, but this latest heat and the promise of rain are probably going to catapult us into Summer. Don’t blink, or you’ll miss some of the joys of Spring! This post is image-heavy. You should be able to click on images to see them full-size.

I took great delight in the early ephemeral wildflowers. The bloodroot, Dutchman’s britches, hepatica and toothwort are already finished blooming in my woods. Trillium, bellwort, mayapples, wild geranium, and woodland phlox are blooming now, but their flowers will soon fade too. The ferns moved really fast this year. I wanted to collect more fiddleheads (to eat) from the ostrich fern, but I blinked for too long and they grew right through that stage, so I will need to wait until next year. 

So many colorful birds!

With Spring comes the birds. So many birds. Some are just passing through on their way north, and you’ll miss them if you blink. But many know that the woods, prairies, edges, and waters here in the Driftless Area are a great place to find lots of bugs and berries throughout the summer, so they are busy setting up camp right now. I don’t have good equipment (or patience!) to capture pictures of our birds, but fortunately I have good friends. Gordon Dietzman was here last weekend

with his camera, and he captured images of some of our summer birds.

The amphibians and reptiles are also out and about now. I first heard the spring peepers over a month ago, but lately I’ve been seeing toads in the woods. I saw a great blue heron along the roadside with a huge garter snake hanging from its mouth. I would have loved a picture of that! I also saw one of our local timber rattlesnakes hanging out around the rock where they like to loiter. Gordon captured some good images (but no actual snakes). I kind of like it when the rattlesnakes hang out in predictable areas, and I carefully watch my step in those zones. But as summer progresses, most will be out looking for tasty rodents, so they could be anywhere. I’ll be keeping my eyes open, but I’m pretty sure that more of them will see me than I see them.

This year I found a few morels during the early moist period, but then the woods went dry. I got a taste, but I always long for just a little bit more! Thankfully my joy does not depend on just morels; there are other mushrooms too! Throughout the season, especially if we start getting more rain again, there will be a progression of different fungal fruiting bodies that I can gather to eat or just admire for their beauty.

There are a few messages and metaphors in the rapid progression of seasons.

· Take time to be still and watch things, and look closely; sometimes the really cool stuff is hidden!

· Enjoy the season you’re in, it won’t last forever. Embrace where you’re at. This is true of every season of life.

· Thankfully, our literal seasons cycle back around each year, and you may get another shot next year at the special things at the things that seemed to fly by so fast. But you need to be prepared to make the most of each season!

· The next season has good things to look forward to as well. You may need to let go of one season to enjoy what the next one has to offer.

I could go on listing metaphors and messages, but I need to set you free to go out and enjoy nature. Look deeply, but don’t blink!

Oh… We do still have spaces left in the Wildcrafted Kordiall/Vinegar workshop tomorrow. I also added some talks at Iowisota to our June schedule. I’ll be doing a short talk on Impacts Affecting Driftless Area Flora for a “Singles in Agriculture” tour group on June 12^th, but it is also open to the public. And on June 28^th we’ll be having Christine Wellman Hall share perspective on the Human History of the Upper Mississippi. If this name sounds familiar to some of the locals, it may be because Chris lived in Lansing (actually at the Iowisota location!) in the 1970s, when her dad was principal of Kee High School. Chris was influenced by the land, and went on to work on a riverboat, study archeology, work at Effigy Mounds, and be director at Norskedalen Nature and Heritage Center. She lives in Wisconsin now and works as a featured historian/speaker on Mississippi River Cruises by American Cruise Lines. We don’t think we can comfortably fit more than 30 people in the Gathering Room, so you might want to sign up early for this talk. We are also still taking registrations for Sam Thayer’s foraging workshop on July 18-19.