A little anticipation, albeit with several months yet to pass, of my planned trip to Northern Maine. Although I do find white lady’s slippers in some of my local haunts, they are seen by the hundreds (possibly a slight exaggeration) in and around Baxter State Park.
Now that we are already zipping through February after what seemed a brief January, can spring be that far ahead?
These two aren’t tangoing but do seem to be dancing cheek to cheek.
Sometimes one blushes in shyness
and other times a couple will partner up.
So what do you think? Are we rooting for an early spring? 🙂
Stephen Gingold Nature Photography Blog 
I do wish you an early spring, and I know that you know that the pink one is Minnesota’s state flower, so these are very dear to my heart. Thank you.
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The white one is actually the pink one. Just a pigment variation so also your state flower.
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The last photo made me think of the soft pink and white marshmallows placed on the saucer beside hot chocolate drinks in cafes 🙂
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I’ve never had colorful marshmallows with hot chocolate. If they offer any it would be the plain old boring white ones and they put them in the hot liquid to melt.
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Excellent portraits, of course.
I’m rooting for spring to at least seem to come quickly because we’re scheduled for our first vaccine dose on March 23rd.
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Good for you, re: the vaccine. I’ve had my first, and get the second on February 25th.
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You’re fortunate. Austin has made a mess out of vaccine distribution. The ones we finally managed to get scheduled for are in neighboring Williamson County rather than Travis County.
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We are not exactly in a mess here, but a lot of folks are having a hard time registering online. Of course, most are elderly and many of them do have a hard time managing the internet and especially something arcane that the government creates. It is being sorted out.
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The Austin Public Health website was poorly designed. An article in the local newspaper a week or two ago quoted people’s frustrations with it.
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Good for you for having the first shot. I hope the second is available in a timely manner.
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No problems. I have my appointment scheduled: same time, same place. Our county is making sure that second doses are available to everyone.
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I am not sure if we will get ours that quickly but it is possible. Right now, besides frontline and first responders, one has to be over seventy five or have multiple underlying conditions to qualify for scheduling. We hope for that changing to the second tier…us…in a few weeks.
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Fascinating floral compositions, Steve! Let us all hope for an early spring!
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Thanks, Peter. Although I am eager for spring, and early is always good, I haven’t quite accomplished what I had hoped for during this season. One of my other favorite subjects is moving water and without a good snow pack our spring melt will be over too quickly.
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Moving water is also a fascinating topic for me. In spite of the rain we had the snow pack in our mountains is growing and guarantees a good water supply for the dry summer season.
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I am sure you get more snow in the Kootenays than we do. I just followed your blog so am looking forward to what you share of your streams and rivers.
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Normally we get a lot more snow than this year. If all the rain we got in January we would covered by an incredible amount of the white stuff. Everyone hates it except the skiers and snowmobilers.
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I’m not ready for spring, to be honest. I’d like things to slow down a bit, until I’m freer to get out and about. It looks like I’ll get my wish, with one more dose of cold weather on the way.
I just spent some time exploring the ladies’ slippers species we have. There are at least a couple that are native; I’d love to find some. I finally found Indian pipe, so it’s possible. These images are exquisite. If I could do half as well I’d be happy.
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As I just mentioned to Peter, I do want a little more winter weather both for all the frost and snow we missed this season as well as ample spring flow for some nice cascades.
When you least expect it and are not even looking often that is when we stumble upon some hoped for subjects. Of course, if you have some generous knowledgeable acquaintance to point the way even better.
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Beautiful orchids, Steve. The raindrops add a nice touch. So long as it isn’t super frigid, I’m enjoying the cold days. Good snowshoeing this week. 🙂 I’m grateful that the ticks aren’t active now… they kind of put a damper on my love of spring.
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Thanks, Eliza! Yeah, there can bad with the good. At least we are not moose and plagued by winter ticks. I haven’t snowshoed in years.
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I find snowshoes necessary now for their stability in keeping my knee aligned, and while it is aerobic, it isn’t half as hard as slogging through a foot or more of snow, which feels like walking on a sand dune.
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Add a 40 pound backpack full of camera equipment and walking in deep snow without snowshoes is torture. I fell backwards once in such snow with the pack on my back and was like a turtle trying to right myself. Wish I had them on then. 🙂
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Oh, gosh, what a visual! “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” 😉
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‘zackly. It took some effort but I eventually was able to roll over. I had to roll one way then quickly the other to create momentum. 😀
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Very nice series of images Steve! Enjoyed seeing them!
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Thanks, Reed!
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Lovely captures, Steve, and I always am in favor of early spring!
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Thanks, Ellen. It’s hard here with friends posting images of flowers from the south/southwest already in bloom. 🙂
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Oh YES we are! Thanks for these extraordinary beauties, Steve. No one photographs them like you do.
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Thanks for the nice compliment, Lynn. 🙂
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I agree about the extraordinary beauties. Each photo is a treasure.
As for spring~yes, please!!! We’ll be diving down to negative numbers tonight, and flirting with them for the next several days, I understand. Hard on my little dog!
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Thanks, Melissa.
We bought boots for Murphy but he would never keep them on and Bentley is the same. They were/are very quick about things when it gets really cold and we don’t walk when the pavement is that cold.
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I’ve thought about the boots but think it is likely Pete won’t like them, either. Although, he does love to wear his coat, and takes great pride in the bow tie he got for Christmas. I think terriers like to dress up! To my enormous relief he’s been willing to go out, and he’s quick about it, too.
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Yes, the colder it gets the more Bentley is all about quick business. It’s funny to watch him shake them off but we’ve given that up.
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Yes, easier to simply give in to the urge to hibernate. It won’t last THAT long.
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So pretty! Well, it will be awhile before we see spring here. We had some pink lady slippers growing on our property in South Jersey’s Pinelands. I was sorry to have to give them up when we moved.
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Thanks, Denise! We still have the better part of three months until the Lady’s Slippers return to bloom. It’s usually mid to late May here. It’s a shame you had to leave yours behind but they do not transplant well which causes many to perish since most folks don’t realize that and try to gather them from the wild for their yards.
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Our used to grow in May too. They liked that Pine Barren’s soil … which is home to many other wildflowers too.
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