No roses flowered with the dawn this day; last night’s stormclouds lingered far beyond the point at which they could deliver any rain. They finally broke at midday, sending dove-gray puffs across the skies like pollen from the dying petals of a giant dandelion, its pappus blown by the breath of some child-like trickster spirit.
In recent days, though, we have been granted the gift of precipitation, and plenty of it: rain, sleet, graupel, even a little late snow. Thanks to earlier rains, the earth was soft enough to receive it and put it to use, none left on the ground or wasted in runoff, and the next few days will see us pass the forecast highs beneath a warming sun.
Running a few final necessary errands this morning, we could see only faintly and at a distance more new green, and a little pink, too: tiny leaves just emerging from their buds, too small to be seen individually, but capable of adding the smallest hint of color when viewed collectively from the highway. Downtown, a few of the apple and cherry and plum blossom trees already have brave petals pushing their way through the catkins, bits of pale rose striving for the light. The tops of the evergreens are green no more, but gold with the heavy weight of their cones.
Buds everywhere are cracking like ice, pollen flowing, like water, on the wind — a thaw for the petals as for the drops.
Today’s featured work is this process made real, a tangible manifestation of the power of pollen beneath the petals of a flowering light. It’s also one that coordinates perfectly with Wednesday’s all-new masterwork, its focal cabochons drawn from the same lot and a perfect color match. From its description in the Earrings Gallery here on the site:
Dawn Pollen Earrings
Dawn pollen is an offering made to the spirits for the day to come. Wings honors its medicine with these earrings in the shape of the pollen and the color of the sunrise sky. These bold drops are anchored by a pair of exquisite oval cabochons of rose quartz, highly domed and webbed with delicate transparent inclusions throughout their depths. The stones are set into low-profile saw-toothed bezels and sit on sterling silver posts. The pendants are formed from sizeable ovals of sterling silver, each hand-milled in a flowering, filament-like pattern reminiscent the stamen that produces the pollen in their real-life counterparts. Each pendant hangs suspended from the stones via its own trio of sterling silver jump rings. Each earring hangs 2.25″ long overall; the cabochons are .75″ long by .5″ across at the widest point; the pendants are 1.5″ long by .75″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Rose quartz cabochons are a soft, delicate icy-pink shade, slightly lighter than they appear in the photograph.
Sterling silver; rose quartz
$625 + shipping, handling, and insurance
SOLD
We may have had no gentle pastel skies this morning, but they will return tomorrow, with the rise of a sun that much nearer, just enough warmer for the earth to feel the difference. We will, of course, have more snow, too, in the weeks to come. The date the Gregorian calendar terms the vernal equinox is no more than a suggestion to weather and climate here; snow and sun will contend for space for many weeks beyond.
For now, though, you can feel the change in the air: an ambience more welcoming than yesterday, new growth making ready to show leaf and petal above an earth nurtured by the steady flow of water from the sky. The thaw is here, mostly for good now, with snow turned almost entirely to rain and a new world ready to flower beneath it, a thaw for the petals as for the drops.
For those of us who will find ourselves, in the weeks to come, increasingly solitary in our space, it’s a good time to honor the gifts of the season.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
