sna poems series anthropocenum #24: paradise springs

March 16, 2024 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

oh man, there’s been so much family health stuff going on! been a bit of a challenge to get out for a walk around the neighborhood let alone hiking hither and yon. took the chance on thursday to set out off west with my dad to get some walking in.

started with a light rain as we set out on i-94 but was a steady fall by the late morning when we left our second site. worth it, and a cold ride home.

paradise springs is a spring site that goes back well over a hundred years with a spring house, dam, and mill that are all now in ruins. quite a place though—so much water coming out of the main spring; wild. a nice morning jaunt, none too strenuous but a nice little wood and pond. dad happened on a small community of chipmunks behind the spring house that were having quite a time running up and down the hill in back. lots of chatter.

on our way to the car, we noticed a birch that had immensely thick bark going 20-30 ft off the ground. by far the oldest birch i’ve seen. in awe.

first id (methinks) of dust lichen.

grass and moss along

the cobbles

gray missing of work

so much springwater—

the silly

things we’re surprised by

century’s portal

wet stone scent

chipmunks’ secret life

birch bark, friends. birch bark.

sna poems #149: hook lake bog

January 3, 2024July 3, 2024 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

hook lake bog is a soft bog in a glacial pocket in dane cty. as the wdnr website explains, the lake is almost completely filled in at this point, with bog, meadow, and tamarack wood along with floating sedge mats slowly making the spot land again. other habitats surrounding.

my brother and i parked alongside the road and walked into the site b/t two houses. a little encouragement from a 6yo playing in his backyard and a turn into a small wood and we came upon hook lake. the description was right; there was open water around but lots of sedge mats, some big enough to look like the mainland, some small floating islands. we choose a couple islands close to shore and hopped along some tussocks. when we got on—after a misstep that landed my brother’s leg into the bogmud above the knee (no waders here…)—we found to our delight that it was a serious quaking bog. the ground rippled beneath our feet, and when the other person jumped the whole mat undulated with land-waves. i’d been on quaking mats before, but not such dramatically obvious ones. a real treat. a whole little world of moss, sedge, and cranberry, getting on toward dusk.

first id of wild cranberry!

making on the mat

a quaking

sea of moss towers

lovely burgundy

spiralled leaves

quiet on the lake

sna poems #148: waubesa wetlands

January 1, 2024July 3, 2024 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

a couple updates for those reading. first, i don’t usually put much personal stuff on here, but my wife and i just bought a house in milwaukee, wisconsin about a month ago. been here eight years, and it feels good to be settling in for real. just to say, things happen but also that’s part of why i haven’t had much time to get out into the unbuilt spaces lately. second, for those enjoying the verse, my second collection of poems, be radiant, is coming out from fernwood press in january, so stay tuned for more info on that front. anyhow:

waubesa wetlands lie in a larger nature conservancy site, a sprawling fen-dominant wetland complex with springs and streams feeding. we walked in and were able to navigate the drier areas, but two steps out into the mud flat along one of the streams put me knee-deep in mud. (had waders on.) so we tramped back around along one of the spring runs instead and sat in the wooded edge before heading on. quiet due to winter and all, dock abundant among the grasses.

the bird calls really

our foot-falls

but for one stray duck

“all the dry grasses,”

snyder said:

but not these grasses

cloud whisps in the sky

my children

gone for christmas break

willow cone gall midge:

disholcaspis gall wasp on oak:

sna poems #147: badfish creek wet prairie and spring seeps

December 29, 2023July 3, 2024 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

it’s been months since our last sna’s. so i took a christmas-octave interurban drop-off/pick-up to spend some hours walking in dane cty. first up was badfish creek wet prairie, a wet prairie that, while bordered by ditches running to badfish creek, has an intact interior hydrological system. since there’re precious few intact prairies in general in wisconsin, it’s important for understanding such habitats.

saw a couple pheasant on my way in, gatekeepers. they let me pass and i had about a mile walk to the actual site, and couldn’t stay real long as i had to meet my brother at the next site. but an enjoyable jaunt around in the dry grasses in the unseasonable warmth.

the ditched wet prairie

and weak sun

kiss because they must

among the grasses

a red bell—

winter without cold

shocking red and green

in the ditch

stooped for midday meal

saw this on the way out:

closer:

sna poems #146: moonlight bay bedrock beach

July 24, 2023August 24, 2024 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

a gem. moonlight bay bedrock beach is a dolomite beach that is sometimes covered by water and sometimes not. we had a fabulous time walking along the shore, in and out of the water, onto dolomite boulders looming out of the water, rock hopping, etc. an incredible habitat, very unique.

first ids of painted cup paintbrush, hidden spike moss, low calamint, narrow-leaved loosestrife, little green sedge, american three-square bulrush, and meadow anemone.

hopkins’s flame-catcher

here and there

hunting on the bay

a spare claw pale blue

gulls feeding

dolomite island

just me and the toad

admiring

wind-waving paintbrush

sna poems #145: mud lake

July 22, 2023July 3, 2024 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

mud lake is a marl-bottomed lake that drains into lake michigan via rieboldt creek. i had my family drop me off on the side of hwy 57 to tromp in, but quickly ran back to the van to get a hooded sweatshirt for the deer flies—such swarming i couldn’t take it. but w/ only partial face exposed, i got back in and the sun and breeze were doing a real number on the swamp: water and cattails undulating, dragonflies everywhere, and new forbs. too short a visit, but a blessing nonetheless.

first id of bladderwort, swamp milkweed, deer flies, and smooth saw-grass.

moth on swamp milkweed

and deer flies

all over my hands

land of dragonflies

and monarchs

the swamp’s yellow mouths

beneath tamaracks

saw-grass sways

flowering july

sna poems #144: kangaroo lake

July 22, 2023July 3, 2024 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

we’ve driven over the late-1800s causeway thrown across marl-bottomed kangaroo lake heaps of times. but we’ve never stopped to walk around, until a couple weeks ago. it was hot, and the bugs were starting to come out, but it was a fun time nonetheless. ovenbirds singing in the trees, new plants, the lakeshore, a narrow path leading thru cedars, and dryad’s saddle almost as big as my 6-year-old!

first ids of sensitive fern, and sulphur cinquefoil,

the ovenbird sings

her sun song

walls of juniper

blue-tongued shoreline spike

a tower

for mud-bodied frog

a six-year-old pack

on my back

running to laughter

sna poems #143: wedde creek savanna

June 28, 2023 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

wedde creek savanna is a black oak savanna, a formerly characteristic habitat in southern wisconsin. open-grown black oaks, jack pines, so many oaklings, and lichen everywhere underfoot!

a good evening walk, tho’ so many ticks. first id of pixie cup lichen, lyreleaf rockcress, and sundial lupine!

marquette westering

whip-poor-will

last night’s memory

red-tipped pixie cup

stretches out

under oaken shade

sna poems #142: observatory hill

June 27, 2023July 3, 2024 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

observatory hill in marquette cty is a large outcropping of rhyolite almost two billion years old. tallest point in the cty, oak and hickory forest on the slope, a spectacular glade community toward the top open to the sun.

we spent a good amount of time soaking it up in the glade, laying on the rhyolite. first id of motherwort and tall wood sorrel!

the hickories proud

in the sun

spiderwort in bloom

the glade lives exposed

rhyolite

and blue dragonflies

sna poems, series supplementum #43: spring brook wood

June 3, 2023June 3, 2023 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

this small wood surrounding a stretch of spring brook (a tributary stream of the rock river that flows thru janesville, wi) is not large, but dense enough to feel fairly remote when in the interior during late spring to fall. this was my usual haunt during late middle school thru high school, where we came to read and write and walk, sit and wonder. i thought it was part of palmer park across the road until looking it up for this—apparently this section across from palmer drive is not part of the park and doesn’t have a name on any map i can find. ???!!!

a brilliant evening walk w/ my dad, the air heavy with stream-scent and dame’s rocket, which has taken over a good portion of the understory. swaying and scenting. first id’s of chain speedwell, hackberry, bedstraw, bur reed sedge, balsam ragwort, and lady fern! not bad for a place i used to spend so much time. i wonder who lived here back then?