Karen Wolfe

📸 Waiting for God[ot]

Early this morning I gingerly walked around the back garden recording the birds for #GlobalBigDay We live in a county bordering the capital city, nestled between a park to the South and a botanical garden to the North. Some of the main streets leading into the area have signs designating it as a wild bird sanctuary. The mornings here are so cacophonous; above the din of distant traffic and trains, it can be hard to distinguish one bird call from another. I knew we had a lot of birds here, but I didn't realize exactly how densely populated the area was. One 4 minute clip captured 19 individual bird species! 🤯 A few more recordings sighted a handful more. All heard from my under-an-acre plot in the suburbs. The sheer biodiversity that exists is thrilling. Nature is truly incredible. The different colors of plumage amaze. They can be loud and ostentacious as in the bright red of the male Northern Cardinal, the sunshine yellow of the Goldfinch or the Blue Jay with its long cape of rich blue striped with black and white. There are birds with iridescent hues that dazzle in the light like the European Starling and Common Grackle. And then there are the majority, those donned in more subdued and humble hues that shy away from attention and flit about in the shadows, like the blue-gray Gnatcatcher or any variety of Wren or Sparrow. The different sounds too are a delight: jitterings and warbles, peeps, squeaks, squawks and whistles. A loud chorus on repeat over here, a gentle peep emanating from the brush over there. There are only a few birds I know by their call or song: The Gray Catbird, easily distinguished by its whining, cat-like call "myeah". The Northern Mockingbird (though I'm sure I've been tricked before by the catbird's proficient mimicry). The Red Tailed Hawk; they are probably one of the more vocal hawk species. The Mourning Dove. The Belted Kingfisher. The Pileated Woodpecker with its repetitive squawk that fades in the tree tops. Of course the honk of Canadian Goose. And probably my favorite call, the Red-winged Blackbird that sounds like sunshine on a summer day. I get confused between the crow species. #birdwatching #merlinapp

📸 The towering Yagrumo tree or Cecropia peltata.

📸 The discarded Suessian flower of Pseudobombax ellipticum or the Shaving Brush Tree. Nature never, ever ceases to amaze.

📸 Alocasia or Elephant's Ear along the trail on the Little Hills/Finca Leo estate.

One of our new favorite things to grow in our garden is red cabbage, both for its striking color and because it makes a stunning and delicious sauerkraut. The natural pigment and flavanoid anthrocyanin gives the red cabbage its red/purple color in response to the pH levels of its surroundings. In fact, red cabbage is so sensitive to pH levels its juice is often used as a pH indicator, with colors ranging from pink/red for high acid, to purple, blue and then green/yellow for very alkaline conditions. You can easily make your own pH tester for your soil or food using red cabbage! 🤯

Oh, what a temptress! What deluded self-flattery to think this show solely for my benefit! As if this wooded trail, I have not traversed in months, is attempting to woo me back into its shadowy embrace. Well played J.B. trail. Well played. . . . . . #funghi #mushrooms #mushroomphotography #funfunghi #funghiphotography #naturephotography📷

It can be hard to keep up with the pace of life, the ever-demanding lists, when the wind beckons and desires a partner with which to frolic and play.

Your love is like a breeze on a cool morning that travels through sun rays and warms before caressing my face. Spring is coming. It is inevitable. The branches are budding out one-by-one. The nights are shorter. The days are longer. No one can stop it. Hope lives in these simple, cyclical truths. Micelial hope. Hope that unseen forces still move and breathe and shake out their dead and dying beyond the grasp or understanding of man. Take heart. You say the world is on fire. But I see the wildflowers waiting their turn to bloom. #hope #hopecore #poemsofinstagram #springiscoming

Rain, in winter wood, sizzles. Each fallen leaf a hollow cup accepting every portioned drop into the pool of its body. A thousand times over each leaf sings, joining an orchestra of white noise. Not a sharp pitter patter, but a soft roar, like a distant wave, that rises and swells and crescendos as it approaches, then softens, like the in-breath and out-breath of clouds. Let me be as accepting as the fallen leaf that in the midst of its journey into dirt, unsheltered and exposed, accepts the hard earth below and the cold rain above, and not complaining of its plight — losing self merging into oneness— joins the chorus in jubilant praise, for this is our destiny for which we were born.

Good vibes @holidaylakestatepark