And now for something a little closer to home. On Earth Day, Monday, April 22, I came up with a new tradition for myself: to seek out crocuses (or whatever is native to my current home), a flower species native to the prairies and a primary harbinger of spring that I remember taking Sunday afternoon drives as a child to find with my family.
I didn’t find any at the first park I checked, but found two of the pale purple blooms on Nose Hill in northwest Calgary. Nose Hill Park is a natural environment area (more-or-less–it contains the remnants of a large gravel pit and was farmed as recently as 1988), and at more than 11 square kilometres is one of the largest municipal parks in North America. More than 60 km of designated trails roam the landscape, and the park is well-used by locals. Views stretch to the west to the Rocky Mountains, south across the city including downtown, and east to the flatlands.
I went back to Nose Hill with my camera on Wednesday but went to a different part of the park first and noticed all the textures in the dead or dormant vegetation. Readers from warmer climes will be appalled at the monochromatic colour scheme of this post, but Canadians on the prairies, despite their desire for colour, should at least be grateful the predominant colour is brown instead of the white we’ve seen for the last six months!
The last photo is crocuses emerging from the ground, hiding out in their fur coats amidst the dead grass in case the weather turns cold again. The images of crocus blossoms will have to come in a later post–I’m in love with every single image so my critical eye is momentarily blind! Blinded by beauty…what an incredible condition to be in!
One Comment
On Sunday I realized I have never loved the color brown as much as I did that day – like you said, after more than 6 months of white. Love your pictures as usual!!