I’ve been spending quite a bit of time walking the beach lately…
Checking out the shells….
Enjoying the play of light on some special shells….
Checking out the birds….
and noticing that the beach peas are pushing up through the sand already….
With all the unhappy news we’ve had this week, the beach has been a good place to find some solace….
On this day as we wake once again with great sadness may we find some peace in nature…
By now spring is popping up all over but one of my favorite places to find spring is on walks in our woodlands. The Cape doesn’t have a lot of deep woods but the woodlands we do have can offer many wonderful gifts in the early spring.
Teaberry, also called winterberry, is common here and can always be identified by its sturdy, shiny leaves and its distinctive minty scent. At this time of year we may still find some red berries that made it through the winter but in many areas these little plants will have been stripped clean of their berries by winter birds and small mammals.
Mayflower, also called Trailing Arbutus, is beginning to bloom
Look for the tough, almost furry leaves on sunny banks along trails or other open areas.
Pipsissewa, also called spotted or striped wintergreen, depending on who you’re talking with, is another fairly common woodland plant. It will bloom a little later in the spring but you can find stands of these elegant little plants in many of our conservation areas.
Princess pine is another plant to look for on the forest floor. It actually grows in colonies, with roots extending and spreading out all over the place, but all the plants are attached and part of each other, not separate.
Much less common is the Partridgeberry, though when you find a clump of it you will often find more. I see this here and there but it is nowhere as common as the other plants mentioned here.
All these plants were discovered and photographed on a short walk in the same wooded area on the Upper Cape. Not all woodlands will have the same abundance of plants on the forest floor but they are worth taking a walk and looking for this spring.
If you follow or subscribe to my blog you may have been bombarded with calendar posts this afternoon due to my ineptitude while posting events on a calendar on my Upcoming Classes page….
Spam horrifies and annoys me and I apologize profusely if you were annoyed or inconvenienced. I have since dealt with problem and hopefully it will never happen again.
It’s been a long, often hard road because I am so not really a computer person but I’ve at least got the shop somewhat organized and running so I hope you will check it out and give me some feedback!
No original art is listed yet but here is some of what is there….
Please stop by and check it out!
Every day now there are more signs of spring here on Cape Cod. If you are a life long resident like I am you know that spring can be a real tease around here. Unlike some areas, the signs of spring can be subtle but that’s okay, we’ll take them as they come…
like this little guy getting on his yellow. Many of the male goldfinches that visit my feeders daily are still rather mottled looking but this little guy is almost all the way to his summer breeding plumage and looks quite handsome.
Ospreys are back all over the Cape. This one is in Hyannis…
Piping plovers are also back on the beaches…I photographed this one at Popponessett in Mashpee the other day…
I was in Popponessett helping a friend who is in charge of Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program put up the fencing to protect these little fellas as they prepare to nest….
Boats are being cleaned, nets mended and shutters painted. All over the Cape spring seems to be stirring everyone into action. What are some of your favorite signs of spring on Cape Cod?
It’s been a busy winter for drawing around here with lots of special orders coming in and an exhibit to prepare for….
I’ve been working on a series of owls in ink on blue gray paper….like this snowy owl
and this barred owl….
I’ve also been working on more botanical drawings like these tulips…
and these black-eyed Susans…
but perhaps most fun of all has been drawing the bugs…
Several of these were commissioned or have already been spoken for but there are lots more coming…..
I’ve decided to just say, “To heck with winter….bring on spring…..”
so I went out and found some sweet flowers like these Lenten roses…
I found some nice red buds on a swamp maple, also called red maple….
I watched a swan for awhile…
i watched the full moon tide flood the marsh…
until it came almost all the way to the edge where I stood…
I found an old red winged blackbird nest in the reeds…
I celebrated the male goldfinches who are getting back their yellow plumages…
and howled at the moon…
Never mind that I had on my heavy winter coat, my hat and my gloves….
For me, winter is over…..welcome spring!
That’s what the calendar said, but….
this is what it looked like when I got up this morning…
At least the birds seemed happy…
It’s been warm enough to melt some of the snow but still….
it sure didn’t feel like spring around here today!
Every now and then I get to go to a new magical place that instantly becomes one of my favorites and this new acquisition by the Barnstable Land Trust is just such a place. Fuller Farm is in Marstons Mills and is about 23 acres of rolling farmland, pasture and hay fields. It is a throwback to a time when Marstons Mills was full of dairy farms but which is now unique in its size and untouched nature.
I went for a walk there recently with a group from the BLT and it is truly a beautiful piece of land. We are hoping to find woodcocks there this spring since the land is quite perfect for them and borders a nearby cranberry bog and Middle Pond.
The buildings remain just as they have been for over a century. Some additions have been made over the years but the original buildings are 150 years old.
I’m a sucker for rusty old tools and weathered wood…
The day we were there was cold and windy but we did find proof of recent visits by red foxes…
and coyotes. In fact there is some thought that coyotes are denning there though we did not explore that idea too much…coyotes and foxes will move their dens if they think they’ve been discovered and since both species should be having young about now we didn’t want to disturb them…but we did find some scat near the area we thought they’d be…
If you’re wondering how we knew which was fox and which was coyote…..we really can’t be totally sure except one was quite a bit smaller than the other.Both had lots of fur, bones and teeth and one even had small rocks. Go figure on that one…
There’s a pussy willow tree there though most of the pussy willows themselves were passing by…
And we were quite surprised to find blooming violets in a sunny patch since it was still mid March!
Fuller Farm is going to be a wonderful addition to the Barnstable Land Trust’s holdings and kudos to them for keeping this wild and wonderful place open fields and keeping it free from development!
