The Green Explosion

Spring is sproinging out everywhere! These shiny-new oak leaves and soft, tufty tamarack needles especially caught my eye on some recent walks.

Perhaps you recall the winter and early-spring views of Building 50 that I posted to mark the earliest signs of spring? Well, it looks much greener now!

Mom came down for a couple days while Dad was in Canada on a fishing trip. We planned a bike ride with her Wednesday biking group and a cheese-making class at the college. But her biking friends decided not to make the drive. And the cheese class was cancelled. No matter, we stayed busy. We went biking on our own and discovered an incredible golden carpet of marsh marigold thickly covering the wet woods along the rail trail to Suttons Bay.










We took a walk at the Commons, where we paused to admire the champion black willows in their spring splendor. Check out the size of that trunk in the left photo below! (See the car for scale on the right?)









We also went walking on the trails at the nature center, basking in 80+ degrees and pausing for Maisie to take swimming breaks in the river. After all that exercise, we figured we'd earned dinner at The Cook's House, a new little restaurant downtown that specializes in local cuisine. A glass-fronted cooler displayed the seasonal specialties: asparagus, morels, local cheeses, greens and sunflower sprouts, among other things. And just behind the case, open to the rest of the room, was the kitchen, so we could watch everything being prepared. Next year, I should have asparagus in my own garden - and maybe by then, we'll manage to learn how to make cheese, too!