Every spring is the only spring — a perpetual astonishment. ~Ellis Peters
A cold wind blows through Illinois, then relents. The hot sun unleashes heat on the world. It suddenly feels like spring.
Early wildflowers press their way into view around the edges of the prairie.
The last pasque flowers open, then fade in the heat.
Squirrels munch withered crabapples, gaining strength for the new season ahead. The mamas tend their babies, born just weeks ago.
The prairie ponds are freed from their scrims of ice. The water, released, stands open and clear.
The first dragonflies and damselflies emerge from their underwater nurseries. Green darners, mostly, but Halloween pennants…
…and violet dancers are not too many weeks behind.
If you’re patient enough–and lucky enough– you can see the dragonflies emerge to their teneral stage; not quite nymph, not quite adult. Slowly, their fragile new wings pump open. Then, they take on colors, warm to their new lives, and fly.
As you walk the prairie, a butterfly or two may stir the air with its wings. Only the early ones are out–the commas, the mourning cloaks, a cabbage white or two. But they remind you that a whole kaleidoscope is on the way. Like this swallowtail.
There’s not much for them to sip now on the prairie, but more nectar-rich flowers are coming. The tallgrass will soon be ablaze with color and light.
Soon, you whisper.
Very soon.
All photos copyright Cindy Crosby (top to bottom) Spring beauties (Claytonia virginica), The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; dogtooth violet/yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum), The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; pasque flower fully opened (Pulsatilla patens), Nachusa Grasslands, Franklin Grove, IL; pasque flower (Pulsatilla patens) fading, Nachusa Grasslands, Franklin Grove, IL; squirrel, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; Meadow Lake with prairie plantings, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; Halloween pennant, Schulenberg Prairie, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; violet dancer, Schulenberg Prairie, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; dragonfly, teneral stage, Busse Woods, Forest Preserve of Cook County, Schaumburg, IL; Canada swallowtail, John Deere Historic Site, Grand Detour, IL; butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa); prairie at Fermilab, Batavia, IL.
Ellis Peters, whose quote begins this essay, is the author of the “Brother Cadfael” medieval mystery novels.
Tuesdays in the Tallgrass 