Fledging Season 2023
This season, we’re taking all that we’ve learned over the last few months and leaving our cozy nests of winter and early spring as we head into the adventurous seasons of late spring and summer. We’ve already been traveling quite a bit lately, and while I love to travel, disrupting our daily routine can be unsettling for me. Coming home and spending time cleaning, cooking, reading, and gardening is my form of nesting, and helps me to feel grounded.
The Carolina wren couple in our garden spent the last few weeks delivering food to hungry chicks multiple times throughout the day (I counted ten food deliveries in 30 minutes!). Whenever one of the parents would get close to the nest, we would hear tiny frantic chirps. I was happy to get some footage (although not the best quality because the nest was well hidden in our aloe vera plants) of one of the chicks as well as a video of the day they fledged. It was a truly heartwarming experience watching them grow and then fledge from their nest.
According to Merriam-Webster online, to fledge is not only to “to leave the nest after acquiring such feathers”, but also to “acquire the feathers necessary for flight or independent activity”.
Last weekend, I had some time at home to try a new recipe I found in Taproot Issue 55: LUNAR for a Full Moon Gluten-Free Sourdough Loaf. The recipe calls for a sourdough starter, which I did not have, so I used a packet of yeast and a couple of tablespoons of water instead. I was curious to try out the bread because it called for butterfly pea powder, which I also didn’t have on hand, but I did have butterfly pea flowers I had purchased on Etsy for tea. When using the crushed butterfly pea flowers instead of powder, you get more of a blueberry muffin spotted effect on the bread, but it was equally as delicious. Later in the week, I was able to purchase butterfly pea powder (also known as blue matcha) so that I could try making the bread with the brilliant blue interior. Our family absolutely loved having gluten-free crusty bread baked in a Dutch oven.
Steeping butterfly pea flowers for tea will create a magical blue tea latte when adding milk and a few teaspoons of maple sugar. Enjoy a butterfly pea flower herbal tea (also known as a tisane) latte in a glass with ice as the weather warms up for an earthy and refreshing change to an iced coffee. You can find butterfly pea flowers on Etsy. Now, of course, I want to see if I can grow butterfly pea flowers in my garden!
I hope this season’s video inspires you to find adventure in the tiny details of life.
The music featured in the video is Some Roses Are Real by Rand Aldo and The Garden Repertoire by Francis Wells on Epidemic Sound.
WEEKEND READING
“The trees unfolded before them, the bare spring arms waving them on, leading them away from rough ground and hidden ditches.”
Underground homes with mushroom-filled walls, a cabin tucked deeply into the woods, glowing eyes of nighttime creatures, and a mystery that has enveloped the forest shape this imaginative story about two sisters, Snow & Rose, determined to find their way through grief after their dad goes missing in the woods.
“Snow’s bundle was a cardigan the color of a sparrow’s egg. Rose‘s was a pullover stitched from yarn the color of winterberries.”
Snow is impatient, bold, and has a “laugh that was sudden and wild.” Rose is patient and quiet with a voice that is “gentle and sometimes hard to hear.” The time spent in the woods changes the two sisters as they learn the forest has secrets to tell and they have a magical mystery to solve.
“Snow made a wish that she could be patient. That she wouldn’t let anger run away with her.”
“The string inside Rose, so neatly tied, had broken.”
The imagery in Snow & Rose, a fairy tale by Emily Winfield Martin, is rich and immersive, and filled with whimsy. This book and its lovely illustrations will have a permanent home on my bookshelf.
Although this book is for middle grade (recommended for 8-12 year-olds or older), if you are choosing this book for a reader who is particularly sensitive to animals who are hurt, there are portions of this book that might require a little extra care when reading.
This month I’m reading: The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton (on audiobook), The Heartwood Hotel series (series also available at Barnes & Noble), Winston Chu and the Whimsies by Stacey Lee, Envelope Poems by Emily Dickinson, Hope is a Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson, and Peach Blossom Spring by Melissa Fu
If you’d like to celebrate poetry month in April, I’ve compiled a booklist on Bookshop.org to get you started called Life is Poetry.
What are you in the mood for reading during this spring or season of life? Comment below this post. I’d love to hear from you!
You can also follow along on my reading adventures and pick up a few book recommendations on my Instagram account @52SeasonsBlog
You’ll notice I’ve changed the way I title each blog post. After reading about the names of moons that represent changes in the seasons, I’m playing with naming each blog post after a subtle transition in the natural world around me, such as blackberry picking season, bluebonnet season, blossom season, migration season, etc. If you’re interested in learning more about the names of the moons as they change in various seasons, you can pick up the Lunar edition of Taproot Magazine. What do you think of the change? Let me know in the comments.
What’s my simple joy this week? After a week filled with mishaps ending with our dog needing stitches on her paw after running through a rose bush after a squirrel, I’m just happy to sit in stillness with a book and a cup of tea for a few moments this weekend!
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52 Seasons Libro.fm Audiobook List
I read once that if there is something that you want to do, but you're not sure how to get there, just begin.
Writing blog posts for 52 Seasons is a creative journey into the expressions that come from my heart: writing, photography, tending a garden, immersing myself in nature, reading stories from voices that need to be heard and sharing them with others, keeping a home, being an advocate and supporter of education and basic human rights, and sharing resources with others.
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