I Got Them Rainy Day Blues

Some wait out the rain

while others embrace it.

Today, I embrace the horse's way.

That Was Fast!

from this on March 24

to this

on April 6:

despite rain and wind and chill, it would appear that spring has sprung!

Easter Emergence

Scenes from a Springtime Darner's emergence from water to land and air and into its final form: a laborsome, dangerous, and fascinating process.

It's Not Always about the Bugs

even though they're out (Common Baskettail and Blue Corporal emerging today).

Sometimes it's about a new view of the familiar or known.

Like the area around Up-the-Down on the campus. New curving beds of evergreens and shrubs and beautiful flowers make the perfect complement to the Quad.

Or like my former student, who admits in front of her Sewanee undergrad children that English was not her strong suit when I taught her, but then tells us she is the person that colleagues at Entergy go to for proofreading or composing and that she reads my blog every day. (I hope she reads this post.)

This matters more than all the bugs and flowers: this is what lasts.

Bobbing and Weaving

Lately, I've noticed an increased number of spent fishing lures and bobbers in Lake Cheston, maybe because someone at the College decided to chainsaw new holes in the trees and foliage along the path. When I asked why about a year or so ago, I learned that the lake will be stocked with fish to encourage sportsmen and women to come on out.

Yesterday, I saw a boat with a 40hp engine, manned by a biology professor and crewed by students. They had hauled up fish, and I think they identified and counted them. Previously, I've seen plenty of fish wearing silver tags.

Great, I've been thinking. More fish, fewer Odonates.

At least some of the wildlife I watch seem not to mind. This spider, for one, reminded me of the bikinied coeds on the grassy bank, catching what sun there was today, just hangin' out.

Sorrows Come Not in Single Spies

but in battalions.

Rain.

Again.

Just as Odonates are appearing.

These Are My People

It's Odonate season again (Common Green Darners, Fragile Forktails, Blue Corporals, so far), and soon I'll be saving insects from other insects and birds, just because I think everyone deserves a fighting chance.

These people agree.