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Thursday, February 21, 2013

Spring, Houston style


Spring Blossoms
Spring blossoms.

Over the course of this week, I’ve had a chance to get out a few times for some quick walks after work. Spring is well into its hurried and fleeting greening of the landscape. Our winter species are on their way out, and early spring arrivals are starting to show up. The wildflowers will be establishing a beachhead soon, with bird migration pouring through in quick succession. The in-between time, however, is one of transitions.  The remnants of winter’s color palettes still draining slowly from the land, pushed out by the incessant creeping green. The skies still flare from fiery red to cooler blues at night, but our brief winter is decidedly in retreat in front of an even briefer spring.

Old
Vegetation
Old Vegetation

American
Goldfinch Reflected
Cypress
Departing American Goldfinch, Bare Winter Cypress

Spring hits hard and fast in Houston. The temperatures may tumble back and forth for a week or two, but once winter’s back is broken, spring doesn’t waste a whole lot of time. Buds burst from trees, and Green gallops across the fields. It’s not a teasing spring like up north…with hints of warmth on the wind, and the slow trickle of snowmelt. No hurried male pulses at those first sign of winter-whitened skin unleashed from strata of jackets and sweaters. It’s an efficient spring, in a hurry, unconcerned. Just like the City it sweeps over.

Path
Path through the Green

Buds and
SkySpring
Blossoms
Spring Blossoms

Anemone
Early Wildflower

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