Black Dog Nature Preserve





So it's spring, and I'm out walking again, today in the middle of the big city, trains rattling west, airplanes overhead, highway noise rumbling on two sides, glimpses of 35W through the ten-foot high still-standing grasses, but: the still-standing grasses swaying ten feet high, the robins with their scraggly nests and cautiousness, the deer paths, the boggy soil, dirt black as night, a new word (fen), the Mississippi past the sedge line, the (I think) common sootywing butterfly that looks neither sooty nor common to these color-starved eyes, which is to say nothing for the green the green the green the green the green.

Comments

  1. Oh, how I love green. Happy to join you on your walk via your words and images. As always, truly enjoyable.

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  2. It was glorious to be out in it. Have you been? Anytime I've traveled over that part of 35W, I've wondered at all that great space to the east, so I was thankful I had the time to get out and explore. One of Burnsville's best sanctuaries, I'd say.

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  3. It's really hard these photos are of Minnesota in late March, looks like May. We have nothing approaching a leaf yet, but maybe in a few weeks which would still be several weeks too early!

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  4. I know, Bill: so hard to believe! I read in the paper just yesterday that the budding/blooming is happening THIRTY-EIGHT DAYS ahead of last year's marks. Strange and lovely, both.

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  5. The 2nd photo down...one of my favorite views. Thanks for reminding of that this morning.

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  6. Ahh, the green. I don't know about Minnesota, but I remember when I lived in Vermont that it was the green, not the ice breaking or the return of the robins, that finally signaled winter's end. Enjoy the color and happy spring!

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  7. Glad to share the green (and those long leading lines) with you both. 80' tomorrow! Minnesota would not be itself without these perplexing, unpredictable wafflings between one season and the next (or the one that came before).

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  8. I wouldn't mind walking there! Thanks for visiting my blog.

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  9. Of course, Sandy. Thanks for checking out LOCW.

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  10. Nice blog, Emily, and I especially like this post. Beautiful photos..

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  11. Thanks, Bente. I feel especially pulled to these images, too. I think it has something to do with all the little leaves, that hope.

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