Idiotic April

Spring
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
To what purpose, April, do you return again? Beauty is not enough. You can no longer quiet me with the redness Of little leaves opening stickily. I know what I know. The sun is hot on my neck as I observe The spikes of crocus. The smell of the earth is good. It is apparent that there is no death. But what does that signify? Not only under ground are the brains of men Eaten by maggots. Life in itself Is nothing, An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. It is not enough that yearly, down this hill, April Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers. We are way past the spikes of crocus season, Ms. St. Vincent Millay, and deep into the pinks and yellows.  I didn't remember this poem being such a downer, but it surely is fitting for this opening day of April, of Poetry Month, of yet another day of burning sinuses . . .   our friends the Marlins' farm at Antietam from Canal Road

Early Morels

It's an extra early season for mountain morel mushrooms, but they are, in fact, here and as delicious as usual!  Due to the extraordinarily warm end of winter and early spring, the daffodils, forsythia, redbud, dogwood, and morel are all popping, and we aren't complaining one bit!  Usually these guys don't make their appearance until around the second week in April; be sure to check out these two other posts for proof.

Spring in the Hollow

This was taken last week; the daffodils are quickly wilting away now. 

"For oft, when on my couch I lie
   In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
   Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils."

~Wordsworth 

The forsythia are quickly turning from brilliant yellow to lime green.

"The forsythia sings against a chorus

of green, yet the hue of winter looms."

~ Rosemary Royston

 

This is Bradford Pear, right?  This tree is along our northside fence row.

"no flower ever opened   
so staunch a white leaf,   
no flower ever parted silver
from such rare silver"

~ Hilda Doolittle

The redbud are beautiful right now.

"I will go, I said, to the country

When the red-bud blooms in the spring

And then, as of old, for sheer rapture

My heart will sing."

~ May Frink Converse

The dogwood are my favorite.

"But high o'er all the early floral train,
Where softness all the arching sky resumes,
The dogwood dancing to the winds' refrain,
In stainless glory spreads its snowy blooms."

~ George Marion McClellan

 

Brunswick's Skies

Inevitably, when you drive west on 340 between Jefferson and the Potomac bridge, you'll see some awesome weather in the skies around Brunswick. I know this area well, and a few weeks ago I just happened to have a camera . . .

Egg-citing Stuff!

Creepy Cloud

a few days ago this huge black cloud crept in . . .

Got an Ark?

That's G's mom - flooded in!

in front of G's parents' and aunt and uncle's houses

poor guy has new riverfront property

this is the new river on Lime Kiln Road

crazy fool on Harpers Ferry Road down close to Mills - she made it!

this is torrent coming out of the actual Frog Hollow - water is coming off the ridges from around off Chestnut Grove Road

G's dad doing his best to keep ahead of it

It hadn't been this high in the hollow in a long while.

Today the river and creek will rise, but all the branches in the hollow have gone down. We had lost power for most of last evening, but all was back on by about 8:15 p.m.

Spring on Canal Road

The Yellow Season

over yonder in WV

yup, Harpers Ferry from MD

Stacy and Marlin's house in Antietam proper

blooms on the turn in Antietam

our own yellow beauties

And guess what Miss SG found ~ the first mountain morel of the season ~ up by the wood pile ~ it seems too early for them, but it is the yellow season (forsythia then daffodils - now the pink tree blossoms are out and a few white ones too -- soon the tulips and redbuds will bloom - that's the good time for mushrooms) ~ The last two seasons have been horrible - very few and far between -- maybe this is a sign of a fun fungi harvest to be!