sna poems, series anthropocenum #25: merry christmas mine

on my spring break we headed west. not too far west, but over past the johnstown moraine that marks where the last glacier stopped, into what we call round these parts the drifltess area.

lit out to mineral point and merry christmas mine, where early wisconsin settlers mined galena (a lead mineral) and dug the holes in the side of the hill to live in. this led to our nickname as “the badger state,” b/c they lived like badgers in holes in the ground, for a while at least. the depression in the picture above is an example of what’s left of them.

nice stop, lots of fun. hadn’t sat under the sun surrounded by plants (dead or alive) for a few months, so no complaints here. sandhill cranes coming back over head.

a.

merry christmas mine

at high noon

walking on spring’s cusp

b.

my daughter sketching

a new life

on the fallen grass

c.

oak buds releasing

their fluid

in light march breezes

sna poems #133: stockbridge ledge woods

the christmas vacation almost over, i made a brash decision to head up to calumet county for two sna’s, converging on lake winnebago with three generations of family.

stockbridge ledge woods was the first stop, a mature forest atop the niagra escarpment, according to the wdnr website. lots of sugar maple, beech, and oak. though it’s january, it was in the upper 30s so felt like a thaw. some snow still clinging, but lots of places bare too. lots of moss and lichen, but also some liverwort coming up (or hanging on?), and some grasses still green. woodpeckers briefly the only sounds aside from upright primates.

the niagra escarpment, made of ordovician-silurian dolomite, is the edge of an ancient sea with exposures from new york thru southeastern wisconsin. the exposures in this part of wisconsin are known collectively as “the ledge.”

a.

the westering sun

shadows snow

new beech making home

b.

wood ears in oak leaves

surviving

january thaw

c.

early liverwort

or last year’s?

woodpeckers all ’round

if you’ve made it this far, diminutive mushrooms:

sna poems, series supplementum #32: cedarburg environmental study area

the cedarburg environmental study area is a rehabilitated parcel of 38 acres in ozaukee cty wisconsin. conifer forest, hardwood forest, a stream, ponds, and wetlands, the area was rehabbed by a local family from agricultural fields. amazing what a few decades and some devoted humans can do for the land and the many creatures who live here (seeing a good many even before spring really gets moving in wisconsin).

fungus and ice and pond bank life and many many trees.

a.

a single pine cone

held aloft

by shrubby fingers

b.

long cracks and hollows

crevices

the sheer edge of ice

c.

willow gnarled with growth

on bog ice

goose honks fill the air

d.

duckweed swarms the bank

as snailshells

bask in golden light

if you made it this far, here’s a sequence viewing some serious fungal work on a tree:

sna poems #93: empire prairie, westport drumlin unit (+sna soundscape #3)

there are five remnant prairies left of the formerly massive empire prairie, which covered around 50,000 acres in wisconsin’s columbia and dane counties. the westport drumlin site is remarkable for the dramatic relief of the drumlin (a whale-shaped hill shaped by a glacier) caused by the surrounding corn-filled fields. also of particular note is the presence of an oak opening on one side, a fairly rare ecosystem these days. the rock outcroppings along parts of the drumlin indicate the glacier may not have sculpted this drumlin as extensively as normal.

it was a very wet and very satisfying walk. we turned back once due to lightning, but then the rain let up and we changed course once again. after a walk along the bottom of the drumlin and into the oak opening (rain sounding great on the leaves), i trekked up to the ridge and had a look about the lowlands surrounding. a graceful time. also, first conscious encounters with leadplant, thimbleweed, and flowering spurge. the soundscape is flush with raindrops.

thanks to the wdnr and groundswell conservancy for protecting this site.

a.

rain is falling

oaks flanking

stone stock still

b.

red ridges

calm

by thimbleweed

c.

i walk the drumlin path

a scar along her crest,

offer prayer for the world