Wildflower Watch!

This has been such a long winter. I've been feeling so weary of winter's landscapes. It has been interesting to look back at my photos from last year at this time, and see how green it was.


But, there is hope. Yesterday, it snowed, but the day before, I found this at Fontenelle Forest:

Dutchmen's Breeches. Spring wildflowers!!!


Last year, I saw these flowering about three weeks earlier. I am so glad to see them again. I was also looking for Bloodroot and Spring Beauty, but didn't see them on the trails I checked.


We also saw Ruby-Crowned Kinglets flitting through some bare branches, and saw a duel between a Red Admiral and a Comma butterfly. They flew at each other and tumbled about.


I've always had a special love for wildflowers. My parents have a photo of me from when I was five years old, sitting in a fig tree, holding a handful of Oxalis violacea. Not much has changed, except that I now take photos or paint the flowers instead of picking them.


Do you have a favorite spring wildflower where you live?

Butterflies!

Weather in Nebraska is always interesting. Last weekend, we had record cold temperatures. Midweek, they are predicting almost 80 degrees. And next weekend, snow is predicted again.


But it is trying to be spring! And on my hike yesterday at Fontenelle Forest, I saw leaves of Dutchmen's Breeches wildflowers coming up. I was searching for Bloodroot, but they were not up yet in my usual spot.


But we saw three butterflies! I think they were commas, because I have seen them in this area of the forest before. The adults can overwinter. I wonder if these are overwintering ones? We had such a harsh winter, it would be absolutely incredible if that is the case. But nature always fills me with wonder.

The butterfly is almost in the center of this photo, basking in the sun in the middle of the fallen leaves. I took the picture with a cell phone, because I did not have a better camera with me, so I apologize that the picture is terrible. I was not expecting to see butterflies this early.


Whether they were overwintering ones, or not, they definitely brought a sign of hope for the spring.

A New Look

Hello, everyone, I'm back! Thank you for sticking around and reading the blog. Other formats for sharing are fun, but honestly, this is the only one that allows me to go into detail, so I am recommitting to the blog. I'll be making some changes over the next few weeks to update the look and focus. And I hope to share some exciting news, soon. (I love it when people share exciting news! It's so interesting to see what makes people excited or happy!).


You might have noticed that I added a subtitle below the name of the blog. I'll be sharing a lot more about geometry and nature here in the future. Geometry gets shortchanged so often in school, and I believe that is a great loss. It acts as a language that underlies seemingly disparate fields, from space science to fine art.




Great Dodecahedron

There is great beauty in Geometry.





Inside of Great Dodecahedron Model

I made this model following instructions in Magnus Wenninger's book, Polyhedron Models. I got the idea for photographing the inside, though, from Alan Holden's Shapes, Space, and Symmetry, which is still in print.


The inside looks like a flower. Such is the beauty of geometry, and it is a very good example of how geometry underlies much of the natural world.


Thanks again for visiting!