sna poems, series supplementum #39: kratzsch preserve

March 15, 2023 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

kratzsch preserve is a 72-acre wood and wetland lot of former farmland rehabilitated by the ozaukee and washington county land trust. they’re doing good work here people. prairie, marsh, hardwood forest, frontage on the milwaukee river, glacial topography; little bit of everything.

this was a great hike, up and down, good steady wind on the prairie but some shelter in the woods and down by the river. snow drifts gave us a workout. sat with the robins and redwing blackbirds by the river for a spell. four lunes and views for you.

snowmarsh and cattails

crows cawing—

trunk shadow and gone

cork margin’s lake-edge

on dead birch

perilous gambit

prairie grass hoophouse

seedhead sprays

accent the esker

confluence upstream

milwaukee

runs on in light snow

sna poems, series supplementum #37: scuppernong springs

March 7, 2023 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

scuppernong springs is a natural area in the south unit of the kettle moraine state forest, a rehabilitated wetland area (mostly marsh) along scuppernong creek-then-river. it was once the site of marl pits and works, a hotel, a trout hatchery, and cranberry bogs, but the wdnr and others have been doing lots of work.

a lovely site to walk thru, the boundary between land and water pretty shaky at times. kids loved it; playing in the stream in the 40s and cloudy with the waterproof boots. my 6yo fell in finally as a soft spring rain began to fall as well; he was fine. 🙂

‘scuppernong’ is reportedly from a ho-chunk word that means ‘sweet-smelling place.’

cool air and crane song

spring water

cuts gravel and sand

below the cattails

slate-blue sand

feeding the river

before the spring-mouth

spring rain starts

scuppernong drifts by

sna poems, series supplementum #36: brady’s rocks

March 6, 2023 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

brady’s rocks is a dolostone outcropping of the niagra escarpment in waukesha cty’s southern unit kettle moraine state forest. the ice age trail cuts right thru this delightful small maze where an irish immigrant (the eponymous brady) once quarried stone in the mid-19th century. some rare plants and massive oaks.

it had been too long since we’d been out, and the kids called it for this site, as our last visit here had been heavily mosquito-infested a few summers ago. (to the point that we all literally ran thru the site and back out.) much nicer now in the march chill!

first id of walking fern, slender rockcress, and white avens!

liverwort and cranes

returning

the mammals rejoice

ring round dolostone

the oak arms

reform the gray sky

on your limy perch

the tapered

leaves radiating

sna poems #134: high cliff escarpment

January 6, 2023 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

high cliff escarpment state natural area is inside high cliff state park in calumet cty, wisconsin on the eastern shore of lake winnebago. here is a fantastic length of exposure of the niagra escarpment, the dolostone rock formation that arcs from southeastern wisconsin to niagra falls.

a hardwood forest atop the escarpment contains a number of effigy mounds, mostly water panthers and a set of twin buffaloes. the combination of the gloaming, shagbark hickories, mounds, and limestone was exquisite. three lunes here to celebrate.

three generations of riyeffs up and down the cliffs. last sna in calumet cty!

lake winnebago

quietly

all the frozen waves

spreading tobacco

on the mounds

no bird call, no stars

the ledge tumbling

so slowly

thousands of sunsets

sna poems #133: stockbridge ledge woods

January 2, 2023 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

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.”

the westering sun

shadows snow

new beech making home

wood ears in oak leaves

surviving

january thaw

early liverwort

or last year’s?

woodpeckers all ’round

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

sna poems #132: point beach ridges

November 30, 2022 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

point beach ridges is, according to the wdnr website, a series of 11 swales and ridges parallel to the current lake michigan shoreline in manitowoc cty. the ridges and swales are former beaches of the last eight millennia that used to border glacial lake nipissing. open blowing sand near the lake to juniper/bearberry dunes to swampy swales to fully forested ridges give this site a tremendously varying quality. super fun to hike, and we had a gorgeous late-autumn day for it.

last visit to walk all of manitowoc cty’s snas.

first id’s of bearberry, bunchberry, birch polypore, and dune goldenrod! first non-bog id of sphagnum moss. (thanks to twitter folks for help with recent ids)

beech leaves under ice

sunlight in

thru cedar swamp boughs

newest beach’s dunes

juniper

comes to view from sand

waves under midday sun

galloping

to the chilled shingle

these tiny dune-lasts

circling

the sea’s own leavings

clouds in western sky

stranded strips

of yellow birch bark

o kinnickkinnick

bearberry

bless and grace this beach!

sna poems #131: nipissing swamp

November 28, 2022 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

nipissing swamp is, according to the wdnr website, the largest remnant hardwood swamp in northeastern wisconsin. fascinatingly, the swamp is in a wetland basin that was formerly a lagoon of glacial lake nipissing (which name refers to an indigenous nation in canada). the beach can still be seen in remnant dunes and barrens.

it was gun deer hunting season last weekend, and our blaze orange was in the other vehicle, so we didn’t go in deep. but even getting off the road a bit was a delight. across the first swampy swale and onto the first ridge, balancing on downed logs across the mud. the club moss was out in droves and soaking up the late-autumn sun. gorgeous swamp weather with birch and cedar swaying above.

in the place of elms

club mosses

have taken the hill

branches sway for sky

only pen

no gun in my hand

needles scruff my neck

watering

horsegrass in cool breeze

sna poems, series supplementum #35: lima bog again

October 31, 2022 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

teaching seamus heaney’s bog body poems today, so we took a quick pit stop at lima bog sna on the way back to milwaukee from our ancestral home in rock cty yesterday.

got right into the tamarack stand, but not enough time to get to the open lake at its bogheart. next time!

in the new gloaming

golden cloud

of tamarack sleep

in a mackerel sky,

two wingspans

and a rainbow globe

asters in the sedge

looking out,

petals to water

sna poems #130: grassy lake

October 31, 2022October 31, 2022 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

a shallow seepage lake according to the dnr’s website, grassy lake is situated low with wetlands around it. a road cuts thru the area and allows access without a boat, water on either side. many aquatic and wetland plants make the area home, as well as many water-associated birds—we saw an abandoned bald eagle’s nest across the road first thing.

this was a short stint, letting the kids take turns with the rubber boots to poke around in the wetland area by the lake proper. fun stop with a picnic before pressing on to lodi for the corn maze.

tottering titting

of killdeer

call from mud to mud

nothing standing still:

dragonflies

hum over drowned birch

burs in my wrist’s hair

down below

hot october sun

sna poems, series anthropocenum #21: treinen farm

October 23, 2022 / jriyeff / Leave a comment

treinen farm is a third-generation 200-acre farm outside lodi, wisconsin in columbia cty. since 2001 they’ve been building up a corn maze and all-around festive fall deal that is seriously impressive. all the riyeffs have been meeting up there once a fall going on 8 or 9 yrs now. the hills all around the area are just gorgeous, and the valleys are rich.

they have a bluff flanking the back of all the lower farm area, and we finally took the chance to climb up. not disappointed—oaks and bolted forbs in the moderate driving wind as the sun began to set behind the hills across the valley. this is fall in wisconsin, folks.

we lay on compressed

seabed sand

above the valley