Early Spring and Backyard Beauty

I’ve written before on this blog about how I’m a believer in both big epic adventures (of which Maryland has so many) and in the practice of seeing the big and small beauty in our own backyards. This post is primarily about the latter. Early spring is a time of such beauty and new life here in Maryland, that it would truly be wrong to miss out on it in search of bigger vistas.

Have you ever read Everywhere Holy, by Kara Lawler? If you haven’t, then do. She has lived into the concept of seeing the beauty all around us, and she considers doing so a spiritual practice. I couldn’t agree more, and I’ve read Everywhere Holy at least once a year since it came out. While you’re doing that (and assuming you’re here because, like us, you’re a Marylander who loves our little corner of the world!), check out this book:

It is such a great source of things in nature to see and wonder at, all through the year. I consult it every couple of weeks or so, and I’ve learned so much about what is happening in nature around me this year. For instance, MacKay writes for March about spring peepers (I can hear them outside my window every night!), the osprey returning to the Chesapeake this month from their southern winter homes (I’ve had the pleasure to spot about 5 of them recently, along with a bald eagle on the side of a guard rail!), and the beautiful flowering “weeds” of early spring lawns (which you can probably find in a park or strip of earth by the sidewalk somewhere near you, even if you live in an urban apartment).

Henbit dead nettle, one of those early spring lawn “weeds.” Luckily it is in substantial supply around my house and neighborhood!

In the winter, sometimes we have to really look to find the life all around us (though once we open our eyes, it’s by no means impossible to do so). But in the spring, the rebirth of the world hits us smack in the face and we cannot ignore it. Don’t try – enjoy every minute of the early spring flowers and wildlife! Get out to your local park or your own backyard and see what you can see. Take a moment to admire the yellow forsythia and the pink and white cherry blossoms and tulip magnolia trees and the budding daffodils and spring bulbs of our suburban lawns and urban centers and parks. See what you can find that’s just about to bud open and burst into life, like the dogwood tree in my front yard. Spring is the magnificent herald that God sends for the new life about to burst forth in the world around us, and seeing all its beauty, pausing to take in every detail of its petals and colors, is a spiritual practice like no other.

Here’s some of the beauty I’ve seen over the last two weeks. I hope your spring will be similarly blessed.

From our forsythia hedge, always the first flower herald of spring.

Found this budding beauty out in the woods!

That would be enough to say about this time of year. But I can’t leave this post on beauty quite yet, because I want to share with you a couple more beautiful things. The weather has been warming up substantially, and my kids and I have enjoyed every minute of it. We played in the creek behind our house and found wonders in the woods, like a natural clay deposit and thousands of these Spring Beauties on the forest floor (these wildflowers are actually called spring beauties, isn’t that appropriate?).

It was only March, but it was 80 degrees! Who could resist jumping in the creek?

These are actually called spring beauties! How appropriate. They cover the forest floor behind our house.

I also had the pleasure of meeting a good friend at Historic London Town and Gardens (in Edgewater) this week. London Town is a very cool place, with beautiful gardens and living history actors and lots to learn about colonial Maryland. My kids love coming here for their Learning at London Town program, so I will write more about it in a future post. But I do want to give it a plug now because of the beauty it presented this time of year in early spring. It’s the perfect weekend spot for watching the osprey soar over the Bay and the camellias (and many other flowers) bloom.

The South River from London Town. I didn’t catch them on camera, but a pair of osprey kept swooping by us here.

And … I took my boy (who is the oldest and hasn’t had a lot of alone time with Mom in this year of kids at home and so many demands) on a little early morning Starbucks-and-hiking date. We got up at 6 am on Saturday and left his sisters snoozing with Dad, stopped at Starbucks, and proceeded to discover and check out a new-to-us trail only 10 minutes from our house. We hiked and ate our pastries and watched the sun rise, and I heard a lot about Lego building but also about how beautiful the woods were. This trail ended up giving us a beautiful and nearly abandoned view of the peaceful Patuxent river. It’s an NRMA (natural resources management area) trail, and is the second one I’ve discovered lately – both in largely unadvertised locations that provide majestic views! Many of these trails are used primarily for hunting, and as a hiker I might avoid them in the fall, but this time of year I’m going to begin exploring the NRMA trails in my area. I’ll let you know what we find.