Winter Blues.

Shooting Stars found on Dunraven Pass.

I feel like for the last few months I've been grasping at what little signs of spring are available - the baby bison or a few little patches of green grass that pushing their way through the snow.  I can officially say that I'm not have to search any more but now spring has just become apparent in the world around me.  Thankfully!  I was starting to get the blues super bad from being locked up inside.

The Canyon area is starting to display a multitude of Glacier Lilies out in the cabin areas, which is such a joy to walk by on my way to work as opposed to a pile of snow!  The most snow free hikes are still in the northern range so that's where I've been heading on my weekends - but still got in a smaller hike before work the other morning!

Mount Washburn.

I'm currently reading Second Nature by Michael Pollen, which is fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has ever known the joys of dirty fingernails after a day of playing in a garden.  One of the sections that I have found most interesting so far is his chapter on weeds.  Throughout much of the book he struggles between taking up the Emersonian view on nature and just letting it do it's own thing versus being a person who has a garden and tends to the needs of those plants.  So when weeds start to infest his garden, he struggles (not due to a lack of a hoe and two good arms) to keep the weeds at bay.

He does some research that is rather interesting - a lot of the plants that we consider weeds - dandelions, milkweed, etc. - are really plants that were brought over by the Europeans and have thrived in our society where we tend to the land.  After reading this chapter, I started thinking about the dandelions that we have here in the park - and they all tend to be beside the road or in Mammoth (where they continue to manicure the lawn due to historical significance).  It makes it easier to know information like this to balance Emersonian ideals and still be able to kill the plants that have moved in to take your tomato's spot.

Now that spring is actually here, I feel like I can relax and mediate in the warmth of the sun's rays.  Bailey (my middle niece) will be coming out to visit me in about a week and a half - I'm super jazzed to show her the park.  It's an amazing place and I hope that she can follow John Muir's advice:

Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer.  Camp out among the grass and gentians of glacier meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of Nature’s darlings.  Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nautre’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.