Spring Jam At Valley Creek

I wasn’t sure when to start the blog this spring.  Today was the day.  After a strangely balmy winter, and an unseasonable warm-up where all the forsythia, quince, daffodils, tulips, and crabapple seemed to bloom at once, we then settled into a nice brisk 50 degrees for about a month where everything stopped.  So we got to enjoy all of those flowers for several weeks.  Now we’ve had a real warm-up to 80, the trees are leafed out, and all is alive and chirping, singing, and winging. 

This afternoon I had what seemed to be a truly enchanted walk along a trail near Valley Creek.  Purple flox, wild roses in white and pink, red admiral butterflies alighting everywhere, the creek rushing and swollen from last night’s thunderstorms, two little frogs who dashed into a new mini-pond created in the upended roots of a felled giant tulip tree, (who soon resurfaced to gape at me), and a close encounter with what I call a chip-squirrel, which is actually some kind of miniature red squirrel with pointed tufted ears, a native of Pennsylvania.  The crickets were singing softly in the meadow as I neared the end of the trail, and blue jays alighted nearby, scolding me as I left the woods.

When I first entered those woods, my head was full of the computer, and jammed with worries about family and work. When I left I was filled with the sounds, smells, sights and adventures of another world.  How lucky I am to have it so close by.

This year's first spring blog is in tribute to my cousin Marvin Friedman.  He was a great artist, writer, comedian, and story and truth-teller all in one.  He left many great paintings, book and magazine illustrations, narratives of his childhood and family history, and funny, funny anecdotes.  Even though he was mostly a city-boy, he enjoyed my nature writing and occasionally wrote an inspired, improvisational, jazz- like response to my blog via email.  He will be greatly missed. 
marvinfriedman.net