Thank God some things don’t change with the political winds. The arboretum was sunny and full of life this New Year’s Day.

Mary Isabelle with witch hazel.

Prairie

Beech grove

Glade

Dennis

Moss fruiting bodies

On the south-facing bluff where in springtime the plants burst forth earlier than anywhere else were many already preparing on January 1, including Dutchman’s breeches, celandine poppy, salt-and-pepper, perhaps due to the confusing weather this winter, spring-like and 60 one week and winter-like and zero the next. After we got home I checked the celandine poppies in our yard, planted at the sides of the rain garden which faces south. There were muscular little green and white buds in tight clusters, just under the leaves I’d not raked up in December, ready to emerge at the coaxing warmth of the sun. And the iris had put up some new leaves. Here are two of the plants on the bluff at the arboretum:

Across the prairie

Sassafras

Hickory

I am hoping for the new year to be one of many to help salvage some level of sanity, if not at the national level, at least within our own communities. Thanks be for the natural world, where tweets and headlines do not intrude, and I always regain a sense of calm and peace.