Saul Lake Bog

Fine tracings

of arching grasses

are frosted at dawn.

Thick shrubs of Cranberry

display red and green leaves 

packed tightly along their twigs.

Browned cattail leaves

curve down from their heights,

more brittle than their summer selves.

A White-tailed buck

stands tall in the Tamaracks;

alert and muscular,

displaying a large rack of antlers.

A few hundred Canada Geese

announce their departure;

rise clamorously

off the shallow water,

assemble airborne into formation,

and depart over autumn leaves.

Winterberry and

large rose hips

add red highlights

into the dense shade.

Black-capped Chickadees

balance like acrobats

while picking at seed heads

of dried wildflowers

and cattails.

Morning has broken 

at Saul Lake Bog.

© 2020 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

Saul Lake Bog Nature Preserve - Grattan Township - Kent County - Michigan

 

November Color

Fine flat needles 
of Tamarack linger, 
and lighten the swamp.

Cheerful Winterberries
decorate the edges of 
November wetlands.

Sparse, purple clumps
of wild grapes
dangle in tart bunches.

Bright red bundles
of Highbush Cranberry
hold early snow. 

The powder-blue fruits
of Red Cedar emit a
pungent aroma in the uplands.

Copper colored leaves
persist on slender twigs
of American Beech.

© 2019 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Townsend Park - Kent County - Michigan

2. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

3. 4.  Wabasis Lake Park - Kent County - Michigan

5. Gavin Lake - Kent County - Michigan

6. Cascade Public Library - Kent County - Michigan

7. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

8. Home Woods - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Silver Bells - Silver Prayers

It's been raining
and freezing,
but the light;
it's always the light
that invites.
So I go outside.

Winter has deepened
into December.
Calm and cold. 
Snow and freezing rain.

Silent in the woods,
except for drops dripping.
A sound so soft
it imitates silence.

A sound
I try to gather
and carry into
a future poem.

Despite dusk pushing
its way into this day,
I walk...

down the wooded slope,
into the foggy wetland,
to discover this gift:

Silver bells
and Winterberry,
and trees inverted,
reflected within
this icy drop.

The looking
and the listening
stills me
within this
calm cathedral.

Silver bells,
like silver prayers,
ringing
in quiet gratitude.

©  2013  Richard Havenga



Photo Location:  Home Woods

Click on photos to enlarge.

Ice Storm - The Close View

As you walk with Father Nature, may these photographs speak to you:

Click on any photo to enlarge.

Thank you for joining me on this brief walk.

These photographs represent my impressions of the first day of our three-day ice storm.
The final photo displays the layers after three days of ice accumulation.




1. Winterberry (Ilex verticillata)

2. Swamp Grass

3. Austrian Pine (Pinus nigra)

4. Cinnamon Fern (Osmunda cinnomomea)

5. Red-osier Dogwood / Red-stemmed Dogwood (Cornus stolonifera)

6. Barbed Wire (Barbus spiralis)

7. Flowering Crabapple (Malus sp.)

8. Seeds of Grass

9. Winterberry (Ilex verticillata)

10. American Basswood (Tilia americana)





Photo Locations:

Home Land & McCarthy Lake - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Winterberry Brunch

 

 

 

coming back for snack

 bluebird survives cold and snow

Winterberry brunch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Click on photo to enlarge)

 

Photo Location:  Home Woods,  Cannonsburg,  (Cannonsburg)  Michigan  (Michigan Outdoors)

 

 

Eastern Bluebird  (Sialia sialis)

 

 

Winterberry (Ilex verticillata)