spring | At Home with Tech

April 17, 2022

The Story of our Two Pear Trees

Spring begins for me when I spot the little pear tree blossoms in our front yard.

Many years ago, before our son was born, my wife and I planted two little pear trees in front of our house in Connecticut. They’ve since grown large and quite bushy on top. In fact, we’ve had to cut them back a couple times to keep them from taking over our front yard.

They’ve never born fruit, but they’ve always put on a big show in spring. During the third week of April, hundreds of beautiful little white flowers bloom on the trees.

These blossoms last for barely two weeks and then blow away in the next April rain. The petals dust our driveway, and then they’re gone.

This year, the big event started a week early. (Global warming?)

I know our Lester trees are hardly unique. Spring is playing out everywhere right now. But as I look out our windows every morning, I see a stunning display of nature’s enduring power, and this luminance feeds me.

And so does snapping a few photos of this annual event in front of our little house.

Happy spring!

April 10, 2022

Spotting the First Colors of Early Spring

This barren tree from afar is ready to explode into spring. It’s amazing what else my camera sees by focusing in on early growth.

I always yearn for spring to arrive, but during these early weeks, nature seems to take it’s time waking up. The days are often wet and cold here in Connecticut.

We’re so eager to welcome the explosion of new life, but the colors have yet to fully pop. That said, if you take a few moments to really look around, the transformation is actually well under way.

You just need to look a little more closely.

I picked up my Panasonic Lumix LX-10, set it to macro focus and then went for a walk after a rain shower.

Here’s what I spotted…

March 28, 2021

The Power of Anticipation

Though the effects of winter are still weighing heavy, I found spring at the base of the forest.

I always look forward to snapping pictures of spring. There’s that special window of time when nature suddenly reemerges. The early colors. The bright greens. The young buds. It’s nature’s celebration of life returning to normal.

As I peer out of my home office window, we’re not quite there. Not yet. Sure, there have been several warm, sunny days in Fairfield County, CT. And there are some early signs of reawakening outside. Yes, spring is officially here, but nature has its own schedule.

If you think I’m drawing a parallel to our present pandemic existence, I am. Our lives are frozen in so many ways, but thankfully thawing with the rollout of vaccines.

In Search of Life as We Know It

I headed out on a hike this past weekend to Collis P. Huntington State Park in Redding, CT. I brought along a couple cameras with the intent to capture nature’s visual equivalence of our current state of anticipation.

As I took in the forested area, much was still in hibernation mode. But when I looked closely, the rebirth was already well underway. Not so much high up in the trees, but closer to ground. The foundations of the ecosystem was kicking into high gear.

These photos promote a near future when spring fully arrives.

I can’t wait.