[OT from cottage renovations]

any way you look at them these snowdrops are easy on the eyes: 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

East Woods

Galanthus nivalis

as it turns out, the approach can be applied just as well to crocus and winter aconite. 

Woodward Park

Crocus

Maple Road at Center Street

Eranthis hyemalis

[OT from cottage renovations]

a warm day with clear light: excellent for opening windows and airing out the place.  it also cued plants and animals into springlike behaviour. 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

Oakmont Avenue

Oakmont Avenue isn't in the Grove, it's across the tracks in an unincorporated part of Montgomery County.  but our ties to the Oakmont neighbourhood run deep; for many years the Grove's Post Office was located there and the Washington Grove Elementary School still is -- even those of us whose children are grown go there to vote. 

one of the things I noted when forsaking auto for bicycle was that at a lower velocity and with a higher level of direct interaction with the environment, I could see more.  there was so much that I had missed, even at relatively low speeds. 

this afternoon I happened to pass along this stretch of Oakmont on foot, and once again found the relative deceleration allowing me to see what I had been missing.  in this case, these seed pods, opening and opened along the tracks (the brown streak along the bottom of the first image above is the top of the rail). 

Maple Road

the plants were open for business and pollinators were hard at work.  Ann B sent out a heads-up to the Grove's listserv about the winter aconite, it was after these images were taken but well before I got around to posting them in this space. 

Eranthis hyemalis pollinator at work (detail)