Spring
No matter how many springs have blossomed before our eyes, the power of the season to provoke emotion and thought is never diminished. Spring is not mere deliverance from cold and darkness and the scent of sterility into warmth and light and floral fragrance. Spring is the metaphor for the hope of the human heart: that life will prevail over death.
We have known this from the beginning: the seed must grow cold and hard, must fall to the ground and be buried; the tree must be reduced to a leafless skeleton. Only then can the seed sprout and rise from the soil; the first buds erupt from the tree’s bony fingers. Death is the dark thread woven throughout the fabric of the world. Without it, the thread of life would be less vibrant.
Chinesehouses, Middle Trail, Mt. Diablo State Park.
The Merced River below Vernal Fall, Yosemite National Park.
Flame skimmer.
California buttercup, Round Valley Creek, Round Valley Regional Preserve.
Evening view from Roger Epperson Ridge, Morgan Territory Regional Preserve.
Chick lupine, Round Valley.
Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite National Park.
Wind poppy, Sunol Regional Wilderness.
Back Creek Canyon, Mt. Diablo.
California buckeyes at sunrise, Round Valley.
Hound’s tongue, Middle Trail, Mt. Diablo State Park.
Mt. Diablo at sunrise viewed from Raven Trail, Morgan Territory.
Ithuriel’s spear, Round Valley.
Bird’s-eyes, Ribcage Ridge, Round Valley.
The Merced River roils through Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park.
Bellardia, Round Valley.
Crepuscular rays shred a rainbow above the Mist Trail, Yosemite National Park.
Coulter pine, Heatherington Loop Trail, Mt. Diablo.
Round Valley in evening light.
Common paintbrush, Bald Ridge, Mt. Diablo.
Mt. Diablo viewed from Marsh Creek Reservoir.
Owl’s clover, Round Valley.
Moss sporangia sweeps across a boulder in Round Valley.
California buckeye, Morgan Territory.
The view west at sunrise from Round Valley.