here in north carolina we’re already munching on delicious red strawberries, but back home in new england, the first little buds are just appearing. my friend caroline snapped these shots as part of her field work. these are some of the very first strawberry and high-bush blueberry flowers to bloom in concord, massachusetts this spring. along with other researchers, caroline is documenting the first leaf-out dates of plants in concord and then comparing them to leaf-out dates from the 1850s using field notes taken by none other than henry david thoreau. how’s that for a research partner?
and fittingly, i think, here are some of thoreau’s thoughts on springtime:
a single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. so our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts. we should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend out time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty…
{if you’d like to read more, check out this article about the project}.
12 Comments
thoreau is such a great way to start the day…thank you.
yay for spring!! it’s all around us here in wv. we’ve been having some pretty hot days recently.
so did you win leah’s earrings?!
lovely photos of Spring 🙂
lucky lucky lucky! i’m sure they are pretty! i can’t WAIT to see this necklace! it’s so interesting to know who won those! i had been wondering!
Perfect fit with the elequent words of Thoreau and those lovely photographs.
Love these images of spring. and what an amazing research project!
Erin, you’re divine! I loved that quote! It’s perfect of your [our] new adventures–nice that they have happened in the spring, we get a visual reminder of the vibrancy of the moment!
so true! happy spring, friends!
hmmm..Henry David sometimes pulls wise thoughts out of his hat. That was a good one, perfect for me this day. Hmmm…
and wow!! yay for Caroline!! What a great project she is doing! wonderful work. so inspiring to hear of the admirable directions you and your companions have taken…
Perfectly lovely quote! Loving spring here in the South…only it feels a tinge more like summer to my little Canadian self. xo
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