Friday, April 11, 2014

Seeing Beautiful: With a K In It

Today Toby and I set off on a walk with the intention of seeing spring beauty in the woods. Spring beauty in the neighborhood is at its peak, in all its glorious gaudiness (click here for last year's post on spring beauty in our yard). There is no overlooking the huge, bright blossoms, the clouds of buzzing insects, or the dusting of pollen on every horizontal surface. Woodland spring is just getting started, and is more subtle.  It helps to know a bit about what to look for. Slowing down and paying attention is required.

We found plenty of signs this morning of spring renewal in the woods.


Violets in a sunny spot just before entering the woods - 

-baby maple leaves-

-lime green new leaves on a sapling - 

-framing, not blocking, the cloudless sky.

Mosses sporting new growth - 


- pollen-producing flowers from a tree - 

- and a wild Carolina jasmine in bloom.


The red sporophytes of a moss jut up. Their spores will take advantage of the spring breezes to spread to new spongy spots in the woods.

Bees explore everywhere for food. This one is investigating something under the leaves,
while ants march within the canyons of a bark wilderness.

Some leaves are too new to have manufactured much chlorophyll.


Grasses seemingly are in a hurry to bloom, not wasting energy on showy pigmented blossoms.
Sometimes "the sweetest things are in small packages."


Neither my camera nor my photographic ability will allow me to capture the iridescence of the tiny spider we discovered, or the hovering bees in flight, their wings just a blur. No visual image can share the humming of millions of tiny wings, the calling of unseen birds to mates and rivals, the smell of dry leaves underfoot, or rustles of tiny animals through those leaves. 

To discover spring in the woods you have to go there. To see that kind of beautiful, you have to put the "k" in it. 

Happy SeeKing Beauty!

13 comments:

  1. Lovely photos - and love the addition of the K to the hop title!

    That must be like the Grand Canyon to those ants! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bravo Toby and Amy for a sharing the beauty of your surroundings with us today. We loved every minute of your very clever SeeKing Beauty post.
    Mom says achoo to the pollen that also makes her eyes itchy
    Hugs madi and Mom and

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just saw your comment on our blog.
    Yes I do feed the hummers...I'm kind of obsessed with them. My friend in GA sent me a hummer migration tracking map in late February. I've been eagerly awaiting them and tracking. I have my feeder in a bit of shade so until the hot days of July and Aug the sugar water gets changed every 2 or 3 days. In July and Aug it is everyday.
    Hugs Cecilia

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your pix are absolutely stunning and we loved seeing all of them What a treat and you sure have a gift with the camera. Have a fabulous Friday.
    Best wishes Molly

    ReplyDelete
  5. So nice!! Spring really does give us great chances to see beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh my, you and Toby found an amazing amount of beauty on your walk. This is why I enjoy spring so much, everything is coming back to life from the dreariness of winter.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Y'all!

    Spring has almost sprung into summer here. I'm lookin' forward to a break at our mountain house so we can see the beginnings of spring once more!

    Y'all come by now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

    ReplyDelete
  8. wonderful photos! We FINALLY had some super great weather today too, took Dakota for a walk and he was so happy to be sniffing GRASS again!

    ReplyDelete
  9. LOVE it! awesome way to seek Beauty around you. Happy Seeing Beauty. Golden Woofs

    ReplyDelete
  10. Beautiful, beautiful springtime! You are about a month ahead of us, and I am so happy to see the glory of spring all around you!

    ReplyDelete
  11. its a beautiful time right now!xx Rachel

    ReplyDelete
  12. Enjoying your spring, we hope to get our own soon.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh, you are so right! Your photos are beautiful, but we need to get out there to hear the sounds of spring and smell the fresh air too, to fully appreciate it all.
    Jan, Wag 'n Woof Pets

    ReplyDelete

We love to know what you have to meow, bow-wow, growl, or just plain howl. Leave a comment for us!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...