My video skills suffer from lack of discipline. My hands are shaky, I tend to forget my tripod, and I forget to turn on the image stabilization feature. I’m too eager with the zoom, always wanting to get “closer”. The resulting clips feature subjects that drift and leap out of frame. The quality of these two videos is best described as amateur, with hints of motion-sickness.
Like everything else, I’m working on it…
In my dragonfly archives, I have more pictures of blue dashers than any other species. (At least, I believe so. As noted in a previous post, dragonfly identification is a tough study, for me.) While I can’t claim absolute confidence, I’m reasonably certain that all of these are blue dashers.
Please correct me, if I am wrong!
I did a few spring chores in the yard today. I mowed, which thrilled the robins.
Then I uncovered the ginger lilies. Last winter, we lost an entire bed of ginger lilies, who are more susceptible to cold than any of our other bulbs. I feared losing all the beds as snowstorm after snowstorm plowed through the area. Stung by last year’s losses, this year I have been determined to leave them insulated until well after our last “frost date”. They’ve had other plans, stubbornly growing through and under and around their protective layers. So tonight they are free.
It’s not just the ginger lilies. The tulips are ahead of schedule, too. We don’t have many tulips (six, to be exact), and they don’t seem to thrive in our yard. Some years, they don’t bloom at all. That’s not the case this year.
While working in the corner flower bed, I found a family of fresh-hatched spiderlings. (Look away!) I’m wretchedly arachnophobic, but these little motes hardly seemed like spiders. They were almost cute. I watched as they trooped across a tiny span of web, climbed the tallest iris, and floated away on gossamer sails. I wanted to wave goodbye. And wish them luck. And read Charlotte’s Web again.
All told, it was a lovely day in the yard.
Today I took a walk with sister-friend and fellow poet Kay Middleton. We walked further together than I would have walked alone, and I’m grateful for the extra miles. We sat on the beach a while, before leaving, where it was very windy and very sunny. Now I have sand in my pockets and twigs in my hair and a hint of sunburn–a happy trio of souvenirs.
Every year, I mean to do better. And every year, I fail. In keeping with tradition, I have waited until the last possible moment to start organizing the taxes.
Next year, I’ll do better…
Rae Spencer 