My, my, my, well, so I started putting this post (and 2 others) together about 2 months ago now as the follow up to my Vernal Equinox post and then it turned into a belated Earth Day post -

{Belated Happy Earth Day my friends! (For those perhaps not “in the know” April 22nd is Earth Day and April in and of itself is Earth Month 🌎🌍🌏). What a fitting time, in my opinion, as April is the month where for a lot of us, the world is truly awakening from its Winter slumber. And boy has Spring been blossoming and blooming in my neck of the woods over the past couple weeks since I last wrote to you!😍}

- and now here we are in June, BUT I never gave up on these ideas and how I could still translate them into relativity…

Needless to say, it has been a very busy Spring here in my Landscaping world and I needed it, so it has been good. Sure, I’ve not exactly been able to do a lot of things I would have loved to, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Since late March it has been Spring cleanups mixed with a little pruning here and some this ‘n’ that there and MULCH, MULCH, MULCHING my little heart out! 😂 Which if you know me well enough, I love to say if I could be Backpacking, Photographing, Selling my Artwork, AND Mulching all at the same time… Boy you wanna talk about living the dream!!! 😂 And the funniest part is, I’m not really joking - I LOVE mulching! It is honestly my favorite way to work aside from this whole Wilderness Photography thing😊

So, again here we are, on the brink of the Summer Solstice, and I still want to share this photograph and these thoughts (as well as those other two I mentioned earlier) with you before we do officially turn to Summer.

So why now? Because! Lol! I love this photograph (probably my favorite quintessential Spring image to date, although I do have a few new hopefuls looming…). And I took a personal day yesterday to finally catch up on so many things that have been neglected and/or pushed to the side out of survival mode for a while, haha!

And honestly, I have jotted down so many thoughts in the moment and taken so many pictures around my home that I have been burning to compile and share with you!

So, enjoy “Innocence” and then be sure to keep scrolling down for some meditations and then a visual slideshow I put together of Spring in Bloom 2026 around our landscape.

And be on the lookout Friday for another blast from the past and some important Art Festival updates!…

“Innocence” - My Father’s Woods, PA

Photographed April 4th, 2012

Mamiya RB67 w/ 90mm lens (Normal)

F32 at 1/4 of a second

Professional Fuji Velvia 50

You know, in all honesty there isn’t a ton I have or feel I need to say about this photograph.

If you recall from my previous post highlighting “Rise and Shine” - you will notice these were both taken on the same day! I caught “Rise and Shine” as the rising sun crested the facing mountains to bask the scene before me in golden light! And then shortly afterwards I began meandering my way down my Dad’s 4-wheeler trail to explore more of the forest in the morning light only to compose this scene about an hour or so later.

Isn’t it crazy? Sometimes I can spend days backpacking and not bust out the “real camera” and other days, it’s like I could shoot a whole box of film and have everything be portfolio worthy!

Again, this photograph doesn’t come with any harrowing tales, only a lovely morning spent hiking around exploring on my Dad’s wooded property.

But when I look at this image, all I can envision, no, all I can feel is the jubilance of Spring in all of it’s fresh, new wonder - innocent of anything that lay before it or of what is to come - the newborn child of Nature’s cycle.

I just wanna lay on the grass on this idyllic April day, looking up at these beautiful blooms and blue sky after a good, long Winter and scream YES, SPRING!!!

If you are willing to pull yourself away from that daydream and continue on, I would greatly appreciate your indulgence to relive the Season in these journal entries that range from early March through the present June now. And then enjoy the slide show of roughly 50 images I put together from throughout this Spring around our humble abode (and a couple other places too😊).

Wednesday March 11th - “The biggest highlight of this unseasonable warmth is that right on cue, the first warm night - the Spring Peepers were heard! And they grew last night and this evening have been an echoing chorus of ambience throughout the night sky!”

Wednesday March 18th - “Even though it may not have been everything I could have hoped for in an adventure standpoint, this past winter was what it was. And it was a beautiful, good old-fashioned Winter. And one of mental rest and much reflection…”

Saturday March 21st - “A nice balance of warmth from the Sun and slight coolness of the breeze today as the birds busy the air. For a couple weeks now the flocks have been returning.

The subtle signs of change continue to slowly grow as Spring is now astronomically official! The tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils are poking their heads from the ground, which softens by the day. Splotches of grass are beginning to show a more lively shade of green and the rains have a scent of fresh was to them.”

Saturday March 28th - “Leo’s chasing the Moon tonight.😊

It’s a brisk one on this crisp, clean, starry night illuminated by the waxing gibbous moon this beautiful early Spring Eve.”

Friday April 3rd - “What a great day!

One of those days that despite the tornado of shit swirling around you, you find peace, calm, and zen happiness in the day that has been given to you and the tasks at hand…

On this particular day - I rested, made a good breakfast, took care of business related tasks on-line, and spent a blissful few hours on our outdoors getting our beds cleaned up for Spring growth, completely re-defined all bed edges, and gathered all the down branches, sticks, and twigs!

It was a lovely Spring day, as good a Friday as Good Friday’s come, in my opinion! - A cool, cloudy start climbing into the high 60’s with ample sunshine and part cloudiness. A beaut of an early Spring day to get your business in order!”

Saturday/Sunday April 11th/12th - “Hyacinth Intoxication! Hyacinth breezes and Cherry Blossom waves…”

Saturday May 16th - “Toads singing their hearts out on a lovely warm Spring evening.”

Tuesday June 2nd - “Man, what a beautiful day! My mind drifts from this pile of mulch towards camping and backpacking adventures…

Sunny, bright blue skies, white puffy clouds, fully leafed greenery, and a nice 72 degree breeze!

Spring, as it does, has taken me from beautiful blooms aplenty to delicious scents in the staggering of Hyacinth, Lilac, Honeysuckle, and finally to vibrant young green… and oh wait, is that the Chestnut trees I smell coming into bloom?!”