Bloodroot photographed by Ray Zimmerman at Audubon Acres, Spring, 2023. Over the next few weeks, I will be visiting local sites to see what is blooming.
Vernal Equinox Approaches
I apologize for being a day late with today’s post. My “day job” ate up most of the last three days, and an editing job kept me busy during the previous week.
Just before the Vernal Equinox, I will give a poetry reading at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as part of the Spring 2024 Meacham Writers Workshop. I will be the only poet on a panel of four writers at the noon session in the University Center Raccoon Mountain Room. The readings take place from noon to 1 pm, on Friday, April 22. The equinox takes place later that day.
My new booklet Postcard from Hiwassee Refuge will be ready for distribution later this week. It includes my poems and prose about cranes and their yearly visit to the refuge. Paid subscribers may contact me for a free copy. Otherwise, copies are $5.00 plus postage. Please reply to this message for payment information.
Although spring is about to begin according to our calendar, the chorus frogs have nearly finished their spring concert. Perhaps they follow the older Celtic calendar according to which spring began with Imbolc, a holiday we celebrate as Groundhog Day or Candlemas.
The rest of this post is from my 1993 booklet A Cycle of Seasons, which I am revising and updating with the addition of some more recent stories under the title A Chattanooga Almanac. Although the original booklet focused on seasons at the Chattanooga Nature Center and Reflection Riding Arboretum, the revised edition will be more broadly based.
The frog’s early debut prompts some listeners to label them “spring peepers,” but chorus frogs give a trilled call, not the single peep of Spring Peeper. To be fair though, the spring peeper is a close relative of the chorus frogs. The LEAPS website has recorded calls of all Tennessee frogs and toads.
Chorus frogs are not alone in celebrating the warming days of spring. A mockingbird woke me this morning as he courted his mate outside my window. Many of the woodland birds have already begun to establish nesting territories. Young great horned owls have fledged and prepare to leave the nest. Young birds of prey emerge from their eggs just as the spring population explosion of small rodents occurs. This is fortunate for the busy parents foraging to feed their hungry young.
As the birds and frogs continue their noisy celebration of spring, a quieter beauty spreads beneath the trees. Today, I saw a perfect flower atop a bloodroot plant. The one green leaf gently clasped the flowering stem which ended in a multitude of snow-white petals surrounding a yellow center. I counted seven white petals on several bloodroot, but some held as many as ten.
The bloodroot derives its name from a sticky red sap that drips from the large carrot-like rhizome of the uprooted plant. It is a North American member of the poppy family and is poisonous. A derivative of the plant, sanguinaria, was once thought to prevent tooth decay.
The bloodroot is but one plant among many that grace the floor of this woodland valley. These wildflowers are known as spring ephemerals because of their short-lived nature, although few arrive and vanish in one day. A weekly inspection of the same woodlot will reveal a constant change in hue and pattern.
The spring beauties first bloomed nearly three weeks ago. They are one of the more persistent spring wildflowers, though they have the unusual habit of opening up in the morning and closing their blossoms during the heat of the day. The pink line down the center of each of the five white petals creates a striking pattern in its delicate way.
Further along the path the white rue anemone offsets the multiple hues of yellow, white, and purple violets. Their stark color is set against the dark leaves of the trout lily, dark green with lighter spots. Some angler must have wished for a day on a mountain stream when naming this plant.
They reveal their membership in the lily family by the presence of three petals and three sepals, easily mistaken for six petals, all bright yellow. Only a few have bloomed today, with more to come later, but their rare beauty is well worth searching for. The yellow petals are offset by maroon stamens in the flower’s center.
The presence of long strands of toad eggs, like strings of pearls, in a pond, reminds me that all of this beauty, both the colors of the wildflowers and the singing of birds and frogs, is dedicated to the perpetuation of their species. As much as spring revives and reinvigorates the weary soul, the warming sun also signals the time of courtship and reproduction.
The old turtles in the pond have risen to the surface and warmed themselves on an emergent log. Soon they will burrow into the earth and lay their eggs in nests of their own. The geese have already nested on the islands in a nearby creek. The downy yellow chicks will follow the parents in a straight line across the fields and ponds. They are equally at home on land or water.
As the sun fades, a red glow gives the promise of another day of light and warmth tomorrow.
Trillium
Upcoming Presentations
My generative nature writing workshops on the first Thursday of each month continue at Audubon Acres. Fees support the Chattanooga Audubon Society and advance registration is required. https://www.chattanoogaaudubon.org/writing.html
Friday, March 22. I am pleased to participate in a four-author reading at the Meacham Writers Workshop. I will read my poetry at noon in the Student Center’s Raccoon Mountain Room at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. https://www.utc.edu/arts-and-sciences/english/meachamwriters
Sunday, April 21. I am pleased to be included as a presenter at the annual Trails and Trilliums Festival offered by the Friends of The Park. The festival will take place at the Beersheba Springs, Tennessee conference center.
https://www.trailsandtrilliums.org/
My presentation is about the literary works of Robert Sparks Walker, founder of the Chattanooga Audubon Society and namesake of the Robert Sparks Walker Lifetime Achievement Award presented yearly by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
Other presentations in April are still in the planning stage.
Glorious spring! Thank you for these observations.