First, and most importantly, I made a mistake on the Quarantine Quiz I posted earlier today. It’s fixed now, but if you get blog posts via email or looked at the quiz right when it was posted the answer to #2 was wrong. Both A and C are butterflies and B is a moth… Sorry about that – I got in a hurry and was sloppy.

If you are fortunate enough to have access to a backyard or similar small area and it’s currently safe for you to spend time there, now is a great time to become more intimately familiar with its inhabitants. Here in Nebraska, spring has progressed just enough that early garden flowers (crocus and daffodils) are blooming, weeds are germinating in the vegetable garden (two are even starting to flower!), and invertebrates are starting to move around.

I spent a couple hours outside yesterday, taking advantage of some high thin clouds and a surprising gap in my video conference call schedule. Most of that time was spent lying prostrate in the garden, suffering the laughing and pointing of my kids through the windows and the occasional double take from the few people out walking past our yard. At first glance, there wasn’t much happening, other than the obvious crocus and daffodils, and birds hopping around looking for food. Once I stopped moving and really looked closely, though, that changed, and I had no trouble finding subject matter for my camera’s macro lens.

If you have safe access to a yard, park, or other place where you can experience the coming of spring in person (without other people nearby), I encourage you to do so. Here in Nebraska, at least, there really is a lot of action out there, although most of it is hard to see until you go looking for it. Don’t be fooled by the apparent absence of life when looking from a distance.

My short time in the garden yesterday sure made me feel better. I hope you can find similar solace.

Be safe, friends.