Seasonal Shifts

 

My most-seen photograph on Google Maps was taken less than 48 hours after I arrived in New Zealand, a picture I took of this wildflower garden in Hagley Park

 A botanical bounty, a myriad of queen anne's lace, bachelor's buttons, viper's bugloss, and a sole red poppy.

And here are the same grounds in late winter on a foggy day misting with rain:

Everything started turning leaf-gold about 8 weeks ago, and the greening pace caught me off guard.  As I saw an increase in pictures of carved pumpkins and bare treelimbs shared by friends in the Northern Hemisphere I saw new flowers budding.





     Winter here wasn't ever really winter.  Wet, sure, a bit chilly, on the rare occasion even frosty, but there were pink blossoms in the trees in what should have been the Southern hemisphere equivalent of January so I never felt the tug of seasonal depression that I associate with winter.  What, no need to hibernate?

Putangitangi shelduckling

A few weeks later they enter their gawkward phase.

    
    I have seen my heart's desire as a new birder, a goofy pukeko chick in a field, awkwardly long legs and crazy broad feet like a Great Dane puppy, but still with the body of a cotton ball, all grey fluff and down.  

Photo by Stewart Baird, via Flickr.

Photo by Stewart Baird, via Flickr.

I endeavor not to take for granted these longer days, sunrise at 6am and set at 8:30pm as Chicago is cloaked in so much darkness.








Comments

  1. RoseKatRoseNovember 21, 2024 at 5:40 PM

    La! No seasonal depression sounds lovely. I'll likely be a snowbird if I live that long. Just follow the sun like a sunflower.
    Hubbs sent me a video of a pair of Tui singing while I was at work. I was giggling and remembering walking through the woods with you.

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