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Sometimes what’s most striking in nature is so commonplace that we ignore it, or forget it’s there.

Photo by Elaine Medline

A gull, a flower – clean slates of spring.

Photo by Elaine Medline – Anemone canadensis

Blanched wing and milky petal, waiting for the sun, the rain, and the spectrum bow.

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Just like helicopters mimic dragonflies, the plow is a modern variation of the earthworm. (So much in nature goes on above our heads, and below our feet.) With their digging and digesting, earthworms make it possible for us to grow food.

Photo by Elaine Medline

Charles Darwin studied earthworms for decades and wrote his final book about them. He said, “It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures.”

Darwin discovered that to block out the chill, earthworms drag leaves into their tunnels pointy-end first – an efficient and intelligent hauling strategy. He also learned that given a choice, they particularly liked carrots.

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Some flowers exhibit early, like the blossoms of a pin cherry tree. It’s a short-lived, sun-loving, stone-fruit tree that looks more like a shrub. The fruit is sour and the wood not commercially viable, so we tend to leave these trees alone. The birds like it that way.