All In Their Time of Blooming

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

There is only one way to capture the delicate perfection of my favorite springtime wildflowers, and that is to recline full length in the rustling sun-warmed leaves with camera and notebook in hand, eyelash to eyelash and nose to nose with some of the most beautiful and subtly elegant blooms ever to appear anywhere on the planet.

It is only at close quarters that one can really take in the perfect shapes and colors and textures of a bloodroot colony blooming in its native element, that she can watch sunlight and leaflight journeying across individual residents, revel in the flickering shadows flowing over everything and making fluid patterns in their dancing.

Then along comes the wind.... Within minutes of capturing these images, the velvety petals had been blown from their moorings and were drifting across the clearing in soft fluffy heaps like new snow.  I was fortunate in being there and seeing the blooms before they were deconstructed by the roistering elements of springtime.

There is something to be said for looking at life and wild places from a slightly different angle once in a while. When I rolled over and looked up at the sky through the budding maple trees yesterday, the prospect was absolutely dazzling, and I felt like an otter cavorting in the sunlight. All I needed was a river.