“If the world is torn to pieces, I want to see what story I can find in fragmentation. –Terry Tempest Williams
“*****
Snow is in the forecast. A lot of snow. But how many times has the forecast promised a snowapocalypse, only to be be followed by a little rain; a “powdered sugar” dusting? Weather forecasting is an inexact science, even in an age where it seems we have so many answers at our fingertips.
On Sunday, I went for a hike on the Belmont Prairie, where the 56 degree weather and bluer-than-blue skies had melted most of the recent snow.
The spring-like wind and warmth were in sharp contrast to snowstorm predictions for the coming week. On the prairie, everything looks frayed and chewed.
Worn out.
Broken.
Even the compass plant leaves had disintegrated, their last leaf curls clinging to what is past and will soon be burned.
A few seeds remain. In September, when the prairie brimmed and frothed with seeds, these might have gone unnoticed.
As I walk at Belmont, I think of my coming stewardship work on the Schulenberg Prairie, which begins in April. What will we plant? What will we remove? My head is full of plans and scenes of what is to come on the Midwestern prairies, imagining the prairie year ahead…
March
March is fire season. Soon, very soon, we’ll burn the Schulenberg Prairie—-if the snowstorms fail to materialize and the weather cooperates.
March, the time of fire and ice, will also bring transition. It’s the first month of meteorological spring. It’s also mud season.
April
April is the season of flowers—at last! I think of the hepatica, sunning themselves in the savanna.
Everywhere, there will be signs of new life.
May
I imagine the glorious shooting star in flower, a swaying coverlet of bumble bee enticing blooms. The prairie will hum with pollinators.
The small white lady’s slipper orchid will briefly unfurl her flowers, hidden deep in the grasses. I’ll drop to my knees in the mud to admire the blooms. More lovely, perhaps, for their fleeting presence here.
June
In June, prairie smoke, in its impossible pink, will swirl through the grasses. Or will it? This wildflower has gone missing the past few years here. One of my management goals as a prairie steward is to see it bloom here again.
There is no shortage of spiderwort that will open…
…and mornings on the prairie will be washed with violet.
July
Fireworks of a quieter kind will light up the tallgrass this month. Butterfly weed, that monarch caterpillar magnet, will explode with eye-popping color.
Bees and other butterflies will make frequent stops to nectar. This brilliant milkweed is a front row seat to the cycle of life on the prairie.
August
We’ll be seeing red in August. Royal catchfly, that is. Not much of it. But a little goes a long way, doesn’t it?
Its less finicky neighbor, gray-headed coneflower, will fly its yellow pennants nearby. Cicadas will begin playing their rasping music. The hot, steamy days of August will have us thinking longingly of a little snow, a little ice.
September
The end of this month brings the first waves of sandhill cranes, headed south.
While on the ground, the buzz is all about asters…New England asters. Good fuel here for bees, and also the butterflies.
October
October is a season of goodbyes. Warblers and cranes and other migratory birds are moving in bigger waves now toward the south. The last hummingbird stops by the feeder. On the prairie, we’ll be collecting prairie grass seeds and wrapping up our steward work.
Winding up another prairie growing season.
November
Everything crisps up in November — except the carrion vine, which still carries its plump seeds across the prairie.
The bison are ready for winter, their heavy coats insulation against the coming cold.
December
Temperatures drop.
Snow falls, outlining the prairie paths. Winter silences the prairie.
January
Ice plays on a thousand prairie creeks and ponds as the snow flattens the tallgrass.
Blue snow shadows transform the prairie.
And then, we will have come full circle to…
February
Here at Belmont Prairie, where I snap out of my imagining. I remind myself to enjoy the present moment. This February is so short! And each day is a gift to be marveled over. Only a few days remain until March.
I wonder where I’ll be a year from now. Hiking at Belmont Prairie? I hope so. Marveling again at the last seeds and flowerheads, catching the late winter sun.
Thinking of spring! It’s in the red-winged blackbird’s song.
The prairie season goes ’round and ’round. A snowstorm today? Maybe. Spring? You can almost smell it in the air.
Today, anything seems possible.
****
Terry Tempest Williams (1955-) quote from Erosion: Essays of Undoing, opens this post. She is the author of many books including: Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert, and Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. Williams is Writer-in-Residence at Harvard Divinity School, and lives in Castle Valley, Utah.
All photos copyright Cindy Crosby (top to bottom): Belmont Prairie Nature Preserve in February, Downer’s Grove, IL; pale purple coneflower (Echinacea pallida) seedhead, Belmont Prairie Nature Preserve, Downer’s Grove, IL; unknown leaf, Belmont Prairie Nature Preserve, Downer’s Grove, IL; broken black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia hirta), Belmont Prairie Nature Preserve, Downer’s Grove, IL; compass plant (Silphium laciniatum), Belmont Prairie Nature Preserve, Downer’s Grove, IL; prairie brome (Bromus kalmii), Belmont Prairie Nature Preserve, Downer’s Grove, IL; bison (Bison bison) track in ice, Nachusa Grassland, Franklin Grove, IL (The Nature Conservancy IL); hepatica (Hepatica noblis acuta); Schulenberg Prairie Savanna, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; bird’s nest, Nachusa Grasslands, Franklin Grove, IL (The Nature Conservancy); shooting star (Dodecatheon meadia); small white lady’s slipper orchid(Cypripedium candidum), Schulenberg Prairie, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; prairie smoke (Geum triflorum), University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum Visitor Center, Curtis Prairie, Madison, WI; spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis), Schulenberg Prairie, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis), Schulenberg Prairie, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; monarch caterpillar (Danaus plexippus) and butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa), Schulenberg Prairie, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; monarch (Danaus plexippus) and butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa), Schulenberg Prairie, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; royal catchfly (Silene regia), Schulenberg Prairie, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; gray-headed coneflower (Ratibida pinnata), author’s backyard prairie, Glen Ellyn, IL; sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis), Jasper-Pulaski Fish & Wildlife Area, Medaryville, Indiana; bumble bee on New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae); author’s backyard prairie, Glen Ellyn, IL: seed collecting, Schulenberg Prairie, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; blazing star (Liatris spp.), Schulenberg Prairie, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; carrion flower (Smileax spp.) Schulenberg Prairie, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; bison (Bison bison), Nachusa Grasslands, Franklin Grove, IL; Gensburg-Markham Prairie, Markham, IL: path through Belmont Prairie Nature Preserve, Downer’s Grove, IL; bridge over the Schulenberg Prairie, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL; Nachusa Grasslands, Franklin Grove, IL (The Nature Conservancy IL); path through Belmont Prairie Nature Preserve, Downer’s Grove, IL; Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans), Belmont Prairie Nature Preserve, Downer’s Grove, IL; red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), Schulenberg Prairie, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL.
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Join Cindy for a class or event!
The Tallgrass Prairie: An Introduction– February 29, Saturday 10-11 a.m., Aurora Public Library, 101 South River, Aurora, IL. Free and open to the public! Book signing follows.
Nature Writing Workshop (a blended online and in-person course, three Tuesday evenings in-person) begins March 3 at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL. For details and registration, click here. Sold out. Call to be put on the waiting list.
The Tallgrass Prairie: A Conversation— March 12 Thursday, 10am-12noon, Leafing Through the Pages Book Club, The Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL. Open to the public; however, all regular Arboretum admission fees apply. Books available at The Arboretum Store.
Dragonfly Workshop, March 14 Saturday, 9-11:30 a.m. Nachusa Grasslands, Franklin Grove, IL. Free and open to new and experienced dragonfly monitors, prairie stewards, and the public, but you must register by March 1. Contact phrelanzer@aol.com for more information, details will be sent with registration.
Tallgrass Prairie Ecology Online begins March 26 through the Morton Arboretum. Details and registration here.
See more at http://www.cindycrosby.com
Tuesdays in the Tallgrass 