An Evening Outside

Last night I traveled off the mountain and down into the valley below me and was surprised to see how far along spring has progressed down there. I saw grass that was green, skunk cabbage a foot tall, and the trees almost in leaf. Where I live, the mayapples are just poking through the ground, and the trees are barely in bud.

But wherever I was, it was a beautiful day and a beautiful evening. Today’s photo shows a perfectly still Pinchot Lake at day’s end.

Yesterday was the kind of day that I know was a huge migration day, but I’m kind of glad I didn’t spend all day on a hawkwatch staring into that perfectly blue sky. My eyes hurt just thinking about it. The hawks would be almost invisible, not to mention tiny, against that unending blue. This morning looks as though it might be a repeat of yesterday, which could mean that hawks and songbirds will simply overfly my mountain this spring on their way north. It’s better for me and my birding when the weather is poor and the birds are forced to find a spot to wait it out for a day or so. It’s not better for them, of course.

What I can see this morning on the mountain is that the bloodroot flowers are not yet open but the petals are not as tight as they were yesterday. At first, I thought this flower might be blooming during the hours I’m away from the cabin and closing up when the sun is no longer on it. But when I got home last evening, the sun was still on the flowers and they were still closed. So the blooms will wait for another day or two or three.