One of the maple trees on the way to the barn is both blooming in red/brown and either blooming or leafing out in that amazing zingy spring green. I was so astonished I took a picture of it, and there it is.

Aerin takes pleasure in reminding me that it was about this time one year when she was small (and thus had a loose grasp of time) that I startled her by shouting "look! Quick! The trees are blooming, and it goes by so fast!!" and she whirled in her seat hoping to catch a tree in the act of floofing out. Of course it feels fast to me, it takes a week or so, and then everything will be leaves and green, and not this lovely lacey in-between.

Aerin says when she was really small, it was not clear to her that the seasons happened. One day was a lot like the next, and things took a really long time. It was hard to remember when it had been really different.

The grape hyacinths are out in force. They are a wonderful color, and they smell so sweet. It took two colors of thread to get the color I was looking for; one chicory blue (that lovely ambiguous purpley-blue) and one dusty purple.

I brought the camera with me to the barn so my instructor might take take some pictures of me during my lesson, and I am pretty sure it is still in my boot bag, so I wound up taking the picture of today's circle with the camera on the phone. I would have retrieved the camera from the boot bag, except the elder child has the car to see a show in town.

I am thinking I should make my circle before I go to circus class, because when I do circus right, I am sore and tired and all I want is to lie down and sleep. Also when I do a lot of work on the trapeze, as today, my hands are very sore.

Wild weather today: two short fierce hailstorms, brilliant sun, billowy clouds, and a lot of wind. I love the way the willows act as tell-tales in the wind. As it gets stronger, the branches fly farther and farther out, closer to horizontal.

While lying on my back under the dogwood tree I happened to roll over and look out across the lawn. I remember thinking about being tiny and imagining life where grass was a jungle.  I also remember wistfully looking at the fungi that grow out in shelves from trees, and thinking they would be perfect places for houses.

Hadley has the nicest town common, marred only by crazy traffic along Route 9. It is wide, and handsosome; bordered with houses of similar gravitas even if they are from different eras. It is also bordered with maple trees, on both sides of both roads that run along it. I was so struck by the march of the maples (doesn't that sound like a nature movie?) along the edge, I had to try to cath them in a circle.

The dogwood itself snagged me as I was hiding eggs for the girls this afternoon. We had a raucous egg hunt, and then I stood there trying to get my camera to focus on tiny things close up.

I used three layers of silk that I colored with markers. I am not at all sure about this one – it lacks contrast, but the form is completely correct. I think I need to do the coloring differently. Since the dogwood blooms are still opening, I'll have more chances!

I always forget that pussy willows are actually flowers, until they go through this metamorphosis from sleek soft gray things to vibrant yellow green spiked and blopped aliens.

Spring is leaping out all over. The skunk cabbage is up. I picked a leaf once to see why it was called skunk cabbage and understood instantly. The marsh marigolds are not quite there yet. Lady slippers and Jack in the pulpit (how do you pluralize that anyhow?) are above ground but not yet blooming. The blossoms on trees always amaze me. I think my brain generalizes trees=leaves, and this precursor step is glossed over.

Three small blooming trees in a row. I am pleased with the way the trees overlap, and the blossoms get larger and thicker from back to front. There still needs to be something else in the middle/back ground. They are looking a bit floaty for my taste.

I realized I've been having issues with figure and ground. Figure is generally what you want people to be focussing on, and ground is, well, background. I'm having trouble with these lovely lacey things like the flowering trees being different enough from the background.

I think this is better. I like the silk organza in the background, it makes it smoother, less noticable. I can try more of that.