Glistening Snowfields to Bonfires Green

This blaze of growing.

“This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green…” The prose of D.H. Lawrence so beautifully describes the vibrancy we experience in the mountains this time of year. The gentle white meadows we skied across all winter become so brilliant with color that photos look oversaturated with florescence. Snow lingering on peaks draws us to the high country. We approach through aspen groves that weeks ago stood like smooth marble statues. Now the quakies are kaleidoscopes with bright twinkling new leaves.

Dirt layer and warming temps have just about ended our short spring ski mountaineering season here in the Elk Mountains. We’re headed to the Pacific Northwest where the Cascades are still white. Skis will again bring us together with friends, and with one very special soon-to-be college graduate. Details about festivities and celebrations will follow soon.

The Enkindled Spring
By D. H. LAWRENCE

This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,
Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,
Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between
Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.

I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration
Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze
Of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration,
Faces of people streaming across my gaze.

And I, what fountain of fire am I among
This leaping combustion of spring? My spirit is tossed
About like a shadow buffeted in the throng
Of flames, a shadow that’s gone astray, and is lost.