That quote, which I should confess I just saw in an email from ODNR, seems particularly appropriate to me recently. I was experiencing some stubborn doldrums, and no amount of spicy food, espresso, nor even a hernia exam could lift my spirits… Then I got home and noticed berries on a young Red Chokeberry bush. (Aronia arbutifolia, below) We just planted the twigling chokeberry, from Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District, this past Spring. And it produced a cluster of fruit already! Seeing this, I instantly felt better than I’d felt all day.
I had a similar upturn last week just witnessing a tiny dark creature dash across the garden - A short-tailed shrew who I’d pined for all summer! That same afternoon I saw a White-breasted Nuthatch in the yard who I’d also missed. We used to have a White-breasted visit regularly but I hadn’t seen it for over a year. (I think maybe he had been confused and left in the spring of 2008 along with a pair of irregular wintering Red-breasted Nuthatches ; ~ )
Clematis virginiana - Virgin’s Bower seed plumes, which give it the occasional name ‘Old Man’s Beard‘:
