The Green Fuse

After a late night high tide on a full moon everything changes.

The once stark sand bars of the Sooke River delta have began to glow green with new life. Green like a tennis ball, or a lime popsicle, these new plant varieties take on unnatural shades of green. It matches the baby geese's plumage. And many new birds need for food.

During the full moon, the tides take more severe swings; higher highs, lower lows. It was a rainy night too, so the river estuary gets full and life at the water's edge changes.

The morning's low tide exposes a tree top of the same new-life green, grounded on the beach. It's a branch from a large Big leaf maple and its budding upper tips, now horizontal and in the water, are not destined for maturity. A span of 45 cm, a single leaf is a thing to see.

From green buds to glowing sea plants and baby geese on this foggy and fluorescent morning, my senses are filled with the ebb and flow of life.

Springtime

While searching photo files for Trees, and my blog for meaning, I found a picture of daffodils. And while it is sunny and mid-February, these beauties have yet to reveal.

But Snowdrops, a phenomenon of the west, are just finishing. White explosions of flower heads that droop as if sad they came to the party so early. Being the first and being small, many people miss these harbingers of sun and spring. A few small crocus have popped, even a few purple prairie crocus are showing.

Until moving to the Pacific coast, I didn't even know there were crocus other than the purple ones of May (if you were smart enough to get to the mountains to see them.)

Now, 4 months before the rest of the country, so many plants are flowering. Greens are up, early leaves are getting ready to pop and the sun does not set til just before 6 pm. How great is that?

And while the daffodils have yet to pop, life is rich enough to offer all kinds of signs of the promised springtime. Today is a great day to go and discover a few. See how this party is getting started and what meaning it might offer you this very very day.