First things

All the springtime firsts delight me. In fact, they seem like more of a miracle every year. When I'm 90 I'll probably be howling in ecstasy when the crocuses bloom. (Nice image, huh?) Today brought a succession of entrances by various flora and fauna, including:

First Toad



















He was sitting in the middle of the trail when I came along, and hopped away with that disgruntled air toads always have, that "Why must you bother me?" look. Toads inspire my pity. They're so fragile, so ugly, so utterly harmless, they seem like a mistake. What a hopelessly anthropocentric response that is--it'd get me blackballed by the ID kooks and the Darwin fan club. But I can't help it. Poor toad.

First Snake

















Now snakes, on the other hand, I kinda envy. Even when they're harmless--which is almost always--they scare the shit out of people. And unlike toads, they are unfailingly beautiful. I was walking by the pond today, and a photographer was there getting some early morning shots. I tried to be polite and give him a wide berth, so as not to disturb whatever he was chasing with the camera, but he waved me over. "Want to see a northern water snake?" I guess he knew a fellow snake freak when he saw one. She was a big fat girl (the photog seemed certain of her sex, and I'll take his word for it), and she was just hanging out in the water, with her head resting on a chunk of algae. Beautiful. As was the

First Trout Lily, aka Dogtooth Violet























I would have expected to see these earlier. Maybe they were around and I missed them, but I stumbled on a big patch of them today. They grow in deep shade, and they are the most graceful, delicate flower imaginable, perfectly fairy-like. Sexy, too, as all lilies are. I was very happy to see them, unlike the

First Tick






















Ugh. I actually picked two of these off me today, and I've been investigating phantom itches ever since. Ticks love me. I swear I could stand in the middle of a creek and they would swim to me. Their cousins the chiggers also find me irresistible. I am a virtual arachnid magnet, it seems, because today also brought the

First Brown Recluse Spider











My old blog friends know that the brown recluses feel my home is theirs. Or vice versa. I see them occasionally all year round, but spring usually brings babies, and sure enough, I saw a tiny biter crawling up the side of the toilet this afternoon. For those of you who don't know what a brown recluse is and what it does, consider yourself lucky. Don't google it, you'll just distress yourself.

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Since I'm obsessing about spring, May Day/Beltane is coming up and I'm trying to think of something fun and different to do. If any of you have favorite May Day rituals, please share. I'd love to hear 'em.


Northern water snake photo from Wikimedia Commons, all others public domain via Wikipedia.org.