Winter Flowers

Daffodils are one of my favorite flowers. The bulbs begin pushing through the ground in the heart of winter. Every warm day in January brings the shoots up higher and higher. By the first of February yellow heads are ready to pop open. They are short-lived, but are a hopeful reminder that spring is not far away.

Hardy green shoots

push up through cold winter leaves

Yellow blossoms shine

Photo: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’Verse, Frank asked us to write a Haibun that uses a form of the word heart!

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First Blooms

If you follow my blog, you may remember that I attempted to save my three little Hibiscus over the winter by keeping them in my garage. Now that the frost is no longer a threat, I planted them in my flower bed. They immediately started forming heads and today they began blooming, even before they have developed much green foliage. They are so beautiful. I am glad they survived the winter hibernation!

Beauty blooms in pairs

Surviving hibernation

Lesson for us all

iphone photos today: Dwight L. Roth

Silent Voices

Spring slams its door on winter’s icy blast

Calling the groundhog from its dark burrow

And snowbirds to make their way North again

As green shoots push their way up through dead grass

A symphony of yellow daffodils

Lift their silent voices in joyous song

Basking in warm blue skies and bright sunshine

While my tiny little wren sings happy trills

The hope of spring comes with evening frog songs

Rising from muck and mud to let us know

Their blended harmonies; Nature’s foreplay,

continues from pond and tree all night long

Flowers bloom, Russian tanks invade Ukraine

to satisfy Putin’s lust for power

***

Daffodil Photos from my back yard today: Dwight L. Roth

Out of Compost …Life

Up from the compost comes new life

Some look forward to a long cold winter

I look forward to the flowers blooming in Spring

Daffodils can’t wait for winter’s cold to shine

In the midst of the rot and rubble they take root

Pushing upward with every warm day of Winter

Reminding me that it is not the losses of Summer

Nor the shedding of leaves in Autumn

But rather, hope lies in the eternal promise of Spring

As up from the compost comes new life

Pushing winter on its way

Yesterday I noticed that the daffodils were already pushing their way up through the dead leaves. Our temperatures have been above normal, so they have started to reach for the sun. It will be another month or two till we see blossoms, but to see them there reminds me that Spring is not that far away, and there is life and promise for 2022!  Hopefully we too can gather strength and new life from the compost of 2021!

Photo taken this morning: Dwight L. Roth

Exposed

I worked on this watercolor painting yesterday. I started off with a vision of what I wanted to show, but the painting decided to expand and change directions on me. This is what came out. It reminded me of a tree that has gone through struggles and adversity, yet year after year it still stands strong.

Anchored high on the side of the mountain

Hit with unexpected storms of life

Yet, it stands tall and strong rooted in rock

Arms always uplifted reaching for light

Naked // exposed to winter’s icy blast

Knowing spring brings a dress of emerald green

Watercolor Painting: Dwight L. Roth

Woodpecker’s Romance

Red-bellied woodpecker pecking on the tree

Making holes in the maple for his mate to see

She makes her choice and the work begins

Wood chips flying as they dig in

Deeper and deeper into the trunk

They carved and pecked for over a month

Bodies disappear deep into the tree

Now only their tails is all I can see

A cavernous hole a perfectly round circle

Ready to start nesting in those shadows of purple

Warming the eggs for a couple of weeks

Brings out new babies all hairless and weak

Continuous food trips all day for a month

The new birds get stronger and ready for launch

Hanging around for a while in their cover

Then off to the woods their cycle starts over

You can see the hole they started in the center tree. This was in the back of my yard, about fifty or sixty feet away. I could watch them making their next from my living room chair. I watched as she sat on the nest, but I never saw the babies leave nest.  The next year they moved to a different location and the squirrel moved in enlarging the hole so much that the whole top of the Maple tree broke off in a storm. I shot the photos with a 200 mm telephoto lens and then cropped them even more with the Windows photo editor.

This happened in the spring of 2017. I posted this poem after watching all this take place. I hope your enjoyed my rerun of this one.

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Tears of Moon

Here in North Carolina, spring has been coming on strong. Frank, at d’Verse, shared with us that the full moon in May is called the Flower Moon, since so many of the spring flowers bloom during that time. The corn is coming up in the fields and the trees have closed in all around us like a big hug. He asked us to write a Haibun about the Flower Moon. I thought perhaps I would take an abstract view of the May Flower Moon with my Haibun.

This painting started out as a landscape with a deep blue sky. But as the painting went on I decided to turn it a quarter turn and experiment with color and the moon. The moon ended up with tears on solid blue, while the others side became a rainbow of deep color. I call it the Tears of the Moon. I darkened the azalea below to give the feel of moonlight on the blossoms.

Spring flowers blooming

Tears of the Moon Kiss petals

Wrens splash in birdbath

Painting and Photo: Dwight L. Roth

This Wednesday marks the appearance of May’s full moon—traditionally called the Flower moon:

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Grow Where You are Planted

Maple seeds fly

with the advent of Spring.

Miniature helicopters,

blades spinning in the wind.

Caught

carried

like a kite on the breeze;

Only to float to the ground…

the roof… the gutter… or rain barrel

destination unknown…

deposited for growth.

New life begins

Today at d’Verse, Merril gave us seed as our Quadrille (exactly 44 words) Prompt. Every spring the maple trees are the first to open. Their seeds drop in abundance and land everywhere. We called them helicopters, when I was young, and threw them back up in the air to watch them spin around to the ground. Nature has so many ways to keep the growth cycle going. Just about anywhere they land they will put down a root and try to grow. A good example for all of us!

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Full Bloom

Today we took our first excursion since before Covid 19 started. We met with our old friends at Lake Norman NC. It was a wonderful day of connection. The house where they were staying this week was surrounded by beautiful Azaleas and Dogwoods in full bloom. It was a gorgeous time to be there. I am pausing my story chapters to share some of the beautiful flowers with you. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Nature’s best for free

Blooming beauty you can’t buy

Petals gone next week

Unedited iPhone Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Cherry Blossoms

Cherry blossoms lead the Spring parade. Along with flowering pear, and redbuds they provide a glorious silhouette against the deep blue sky. I took this photo in my neighborhood this morning. Cherry blossoms are a great symbol of new life and light as we lead into Easter this coming weekend.

Cherry blossoms shine

Painting warm soft spring snowflakes

Soon wrapped in deep green

At d’Verse, Frank asked us to write our Monday Haibun on the theme of cherry blossoms. I waited to post till today so I could show you the beautiful cherry blossoms I see as I pass in and out of my neighborhood.

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