Virginia A. Spiegel

Grit

Maybe this belongs over on The Garbage Day Project, but there is just something about this photo. I think it is the gritty gravel behind the banana that makes it for me.

Of course, there’s a new post in The Garbage Day Project. It is, in fact, more of the sleek and shiny kind of photo.

And a reminder that Collage Mania continues today with the minimum donation of $40 beginning at 9 a.m. CST.

Collage Mania raised $8000 yesterday; perhaps we can go all the way to $10,000 today.

Path

Prairies need to be burned and this wonderful design emerged at the prairie center about two weeks ago. The prairie has so greened up now that you can’t even see the path.

Nature report: Two wood ducks tried to find a nesting hole in our shagbark hickories. If you didn’t know that wood ducks nested in trees, you wouldn’t believe DUCKS sitting so high up in a tree. I am going to research where to obtain a wood duck nesting box and how it should be placed for next year. They are beautiful birds. Still no wrens or orioles. Of course, we had snow flakes yesterday, so perhaps there is no rush. Canadian geese in Rockford had goslings already last week

The photo today for The Garbage Day Project was a lucky find.

Burning Sun

Midwesterners like to burn things. As soon as it seems like it might be Spring, the fires are alight all around us. My theory is that since prairies do actually benefit from burning, there is some type of genetic memory of lighting Spring fires or seeing Spring fires lit by lightning.

I did my part this weekend with a bonfire of dead rose canes, brambles, and diseased tree branches. In any case, we have tremendously beautiful sunsets this time of year, for better or worse.

Nature Report: The catbirds are back; no wrens yet. I saw my first butterfly and bumblebee. I had never seen cranes migrating back north, but heard their distinctive calling this weekend and kept an eye on the sky. Soon two cranes came into view, calling and calling. I thought they were confused because they kept circling in one spot, higher and higher. I waited and soon a much smaller crane came into view. The two bigger cranes circled down and off they went in a straight line.

Of course, there’s a post on the The Garbage Day Project blog today with some new raw material for Garbage Art.

Hope

I had to go for the green! I have had enough beige for awhile and was thrilled to find these valiant daffodils trying to grow under a thick cover of leaves. Other nature notes: I saw my first long-tailed brown thrush yesterday and a honeybee. Spring is here in my book (never mind that the water in the bird bath is frozen this morning).

If you are wondering what the heck that “stringy” thing is in the background of the photo, visit The Garbage Day Project blog.

Onward

Spring is trying here. Tan is still is the predominant color at the nature center. But what a lot of tonal variation; I almost prefer it to green.

Even though the prairie is still sleeping, the meadow larks are back and singing their hearts out. A gorgeous bird with a liquid, musical song. I wasn’t able with my small digital to take a good photo, but go here to see a photo. Thank goodness for these enclaves of grassland as a refuge for these amazing birds.

And, of course, there is a new post on The Garbage Day Project blog today.