My day was shaped by THAT TREE. THAT TREE is a book, a project an amazing happening  that was and is the work of author/photographer Mark Hirsch. If you do not know THAT TREE I suggest you learn. It is a book, she ( ascribed female pronoun by Mark who knows and loves her) has a facebook page, an Instagram following, has been covered on television special and so very much more. This day I traveled to a near by town to  enjoy Mark Hirsch's presentation and get my book autographed and decided to make it a day exploring some of the area around this small town down the road. Here are some  photos from my day  driving to and around Vinton, Iowa in Benton County, through farm fields with a meander through  Dudgeon Lake State Wildlife Management Area and back to Cedar Rapids.  THAT TREE is growing in a farm field across the Mississippi in southwest Wisconsin. In her honor here I share some tree and farm scenes from this day.

Vernal Equinox occurred and spring is declared in the northern hemisphere. It has been a long, hard, cold winter for so many.
The hard cold is not all gone with the change of the season.
Snow still may be forecast and ice remains in shaded spots and river shorelines.
Spring is not a day.
it is a time of  transition, one step forward, two steps back and we cha-cha  with the rhythms of the environment and must be ready to vary our steps accordingly.

Much of the  North American continent is still under a drought watch, some areas far more severe than others. My home is not ''severe'' in it's drought but we are dry and every form of precipitation is  valuable. We are weary of cold , we are sore from the falls and work that ice has created over the winter but, even so, it is moisture to help  hydrate our agricultural fields and fill the water tables, raise the levels in aquifers and wells.

Water in crystal form , as precious gems strewn about the landscape. i t reflects the light, it gathers the thirsty soil to it as the bits of dirt drink it's precious water content. Soon it will all be gone for  many months and we will seek ivce from machines to cool our drinks in the heat if summer and the condensation of air conditioning systems freezing up as they run hard in excessive temperatures that lie ahead...but for now a last (?) look at the ice from the winter that was

During
That
Cold
Month
Of
March
We
Hoped
Every
Day
That
The
Sn ow
Would
Melt
Right
Away
BecauseIt
Is
So
Hard
To
Walk
On

Aldo Kraas

 

March days return with their covert light,
and huge fish swim through the sky,
vague earthly vapours progress in secret,
things slip to silence one by one.
Through fortuity, at this crisis of errant skies,
you reunite the lives of the sea to that of fire,
grey lurchings of the ship of winter
to the form that love carved in the guitar.
O love, O rose soaked by mermaids and spume,
dancing flame that climbs the invisible stairway,
to waken the blood in insomnia’s labyrinth,
so that the waves can complete themselves in the sky,
the sea forget its cargoes and rages,
and the world fall into darkness’s nets.

Pablo Neruda