The Awakening

Waking from a deep sleep

the forest yawns and stretches out

stiff limbs

A warm light caresses

the lifeless branches

coaxing out curious puffs

of fuzzy magic

Tiny creatures

poke their heads

from the dark earth.

Such shy, fragile things

Rain falls

and falls

seeming endless

It must reach deep

to stir those

who continue to sleep

Ice transforms to a more fluid state

allowing the fish to escape

their cramped indoor existence

Each flower celebrates

its release

from bulb form

with a glow

whose light, colour and presence,

outshines its real life size

ten-fold!

Silly characters pop out of the lawn;

a happy, unplanned surprise.

I suppose I must thank the squirrels

for this one kind act

among the multitude of mischievous

re-plantings they perform in the fall

Daffodils emit an otherworldly glow;

They seem to siphon their colour

directly from the sun

becoming landlocked beacons of light

for us,

winter weary travellers

With an uncanny ability

to sense Spring air

they have yet to breathe

Houseplants,

rescued from last year's frost,

burst into joyous bloom

Outside,

timid colours

deepen

Fragrance

dances on the

ever-warming breeze

sneaking in through

windows that now remain

a crack open

Early bloomers

know their time

will soon be over,

buds give way to seed

Nature reminds us every day

in colour, shape and form -

It's always about Transformation!

Dragonfly Dreams

I live in the middle of suburbia.

A land of sidewalks, paved driveways and every now and then

a teensy, tiny greenspace.

We looked long and hard to find our house

and chose it because of its12,000 square foot lot

 in a well-treed neighbourhood.

But, was I going to find dragonflies here?

Of course not...

That is, until I planted my garden

and they began to visit

regularly.

Even then, a dragonfly pond?

Can you even build one just for dragonflies?

It turns out, you can :)

It took us a few years of experimenting and educating ourselves

before we recognized the Pond Dragons (dragonfly larvae)

that scuttled along the muddy bottom of the water.

This is the first year I saw them emerge...

from my pond...

my Dragonfly Pond.

I am over the moon and beyond happy.

In the first photo:

I rescued a dragonfly from the rising pond water.

Its wings had not yet hardened enough

for it to fly away.

In the second photo:

Something twinkling in my apple tree caught my eye.

It turned out to be a dragonfly drying its wings

in the sunlight.

In the final photo:

- Best of all -

I witnessed several dragonflies

laying their eggs in the moss near the water

which means...

more dragonflies will be born in

Dragonfly Pond!

Dragonfly dreams do come true :)

The Last One

It's sad but true,

that when we have something in abundance

we can become nonchalant about it.

For a number of reasons

(mainly raccoons)

I rarely have more

than one or two lily pad flowers each summer.

I'm starting to think this is a good thing.

Because they are scarce,

I drool over each stage of their development.

From just barely visible under water

to the emerging bulb,

until finally, they are the gorgeous,

pink, multi-petalled, floating beauty you see here.

I'm happy they are so rare

because this makes me regard them

as precious.

Mid-Morning Pond Heron

This is supposed to be a Black Crowned Night Heron but...

I have re-named it to:

A Mid-Morning Pond Heron

(according to its behaviour at my fish pond)

I've had to re-name my fish pond as well.

It is now known as Fort Knox.

It is reinforced,

barb-wire barricaded

and tie-wrapped to a ridiculous level.

But getting back to the heron.

Here it is watching me with that oh-so-piercing red gaze.

It sends an anguished look below at the shimmering, juicy goldfish.

Followed by a calculation of its exit route through the trees.

With one flap of its long, powerful wings it shoots straight up,

right out of my camera's view.
All you see is a rather frightening view of its two clawed feet.

I manage to get one clear shot before it is gone.

You can just make out its silhouette through the leaves,
a shadowy, mystical figure,
a ghostly pond raider.