Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Recklessly Blooming

"Everything is blooming most recklessly;
if it were voices instead of colors,
there would be an unbelievable shrieking
into the heart of the night." (Rainer Maria Rilke)


It's here, quite suddenly. Spring everywhere I look, and while walking Duncan there's a lot of looking. Especially with a camera tucked into one pocket, pushing against the bag of pumpkin treats I've slid in there. Everything is magical in Spring. Nothing should escape notice. I was one of many people stopping along the shore of the lake to take pictures and it warmed my heart. There were berry-shaped blossoms, ripples of sun dancing on the lake and the buds and the grass, tiny little bugs crawling across the body of a dandelion which must've seemed like a field of yellow to its eyes and nose. The sky was magnificent, the air warm and only slightly potato skin-scented from the restaurant on the north shore. I could smell the lake, strong and fishy, green and thick. There was something sweet, too, like mint, almost pungent which reminded me of childhood walks through the pastures up in the mountains south of Pocatello. Was it water cress? Does water Cress even have a smell? Maybe it was mint. Whatever, it was sharp and strong and unbearably sweet in my nose. The bugs were also out, swarms of them, gold in the light, the one drawback of the warm months. I'm lucky in that the only place I get bit by mosquitoes is North Dakota, where the things are as big as birds and meaner than geese.
Thank God for Duncan and our walk in the glorious, glorious spring. I wish you were all here to share it with us.

3 comments:

NodakJack said...

Ah yes, I remember your visit to North Dakota. You bragged how mosquitoes don't bother you. Well...
They did.
We didn't get one picture of you and your friend Ruth when you both weren't a blur as you swatted at them. You ducked, dodged and ran. We laughed and went to The Teamsters and YOU won the big bucks! Whadda' guy.

Curt Rogers said...

I remember standing in your backyard proudly proclaiming that mosquitoes never bother me, except to fly into my mouth when I felt a sharp pain on my leg, swatted reflexively and looked down to see blood, actual drops of blood dripping down my calf.

Those are not insects you have, they're bats or rabid hummingbirds. Terrible, terrible, terrible.

Lori Whitwam said...

WHAT is the blossom in that top picture?
Mosquitoes, even here in The Mosquito State, don't bother me much, but I prefer not to take chances.
Waiting for my apple trees to blossom, and the lilacs, but everything is about two weeks behind schedule here this spring.