Displaced

[rejectomorph]

Today I saw gladiolus blossoms. The vegetable kingdom is going crazy. Mere brightness brings flowers, despite the continued cold. I saw a bee, too. It was crawling on the brick ledge alongside the front porch. I don't know if it had been injured, or was simply dying of hypothermia, but dying it clearly was. It wobbled about in a patch of sunlight, unable to fly, and finally fell from the ledge into the shade of a bush, where I could no longer see its struggles. Overhead, the sun illuminated the blindingly white ramparts of drifting clouds that decorated the blue sky. Nearby, the rain-fed moss covering the mulberry tree's trunk was plushy and deep green, and paler mosses carpeted the walkway leading to it, as they do in winter's depths. The contrasts of the day were too much for me. I retreated indoors and read a book until night fell and the sky was filled with stars. I have no tolerance for details these days. I desire the enveloping darkness, and the still air that says nothing.

Comments

[worded-snapshot.livejournal.com]

It's always great reading about someone else that has the patience to watch insects.

It seems more often now that Springlike weather fools the trees and animals. I saw robins today and there is still snow. I know they'll eat berries (I notice when they get drunk in the fall from fermenting berries), but it seems too early to see them here.

[rejectomorph]

Perhaps nature grows more reckless, following our example.

As a child, I could spend hours watching ants: following their trails to see how far they went, making small streams with the hose and placing twigs for the throngs to use as bridges, discovering those explorers who departed the mass in search of new food sources or dwelling sites, then seeing the gradually increasing numbers follow them. What I liked most, though, was watching masses of them them dismember the bodies of larger insects and carry the bits off to their dens.

I even once wrote my name in ants, by first writing it with drops of honey on the sidewalk near their path, then waiting for the ants to gather and feast on it. It was both interesting and creepy to see my name swarming and quivering on the cement. I don't know why I found ants in particular so fascinating, but I still enjoy watching them parade by, now and then.