The Spring Habits of Wasps, Blooming Flowers and Trees

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The author talks about the habits of wasps in spring and the blooming flowers and trees in the changing seasons.
The author talks about the habits of wasps in spring and the blooming flowers and trees in the changing seasons.
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Big leaf maple buds explode into spring.
Big leaf maple buds explode into spring.
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Newly minted chestnut oak leaves in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Newly minted chestnut oak leaves in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
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A burgeoning northern red oak stretches to the sun.
A burgeoning northern red oak stretches to the sun.
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Defying cold and snow, the exuberant crocus insists spring is just around the corner. Hardly dormant, winter is full of new life waiting: You just have to look.
Defying cold and snow, the exuberant crocus insists spring is just around the corner. Hardly dormant, winter is full of new life waiting: You just have to look.
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A beguiling chorus of snowdrops takes its place upon a snowy stage.
A beguiling chorus of snowdrops takes its place upon a snowy stage.

The author talks about the spring habits of wasps and the flowers, plants and trees as seasons change.

It’s a warmer than usual, but nonetheless plodding, will-spring-never-come day in late February. “There’s some sort of wasp in the window,” my wife says. Sure enough, there’s the hapless insect, trapped in the sun-baited space between panes in the southeast-facing window of our dining area. Lured too soon from its winter sleeping berth — a hole or crack somewhere in the old window’s workings — the logy brown wasp staggers across the outer pane of glass. The future (spring!) is seemingly right there before its eyes yet not . . . quite . . . attainable.

I am reminded, uncomfortably, of a mime’s feigned,
flat-handed struggle within an imaginary box. “I know how,
you feel” I think and stare out the window: past the wasp,

  • Published on Feb 1, 2002
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