Spring on the Tallgrass

(Fringed Puccoon at Prairie Hill Farm)

This is truly spring on the Tallgrass Prairie here at Prairie Hill Farm Studio. It may be not "typical" because it's been a very undecisive spring here so far. Some rain, but not much. Some warm weather, but not much. Up and down certainly, but still nice to get out and , if only momentarily, away from the inside work I've been plugging away at the past 4-5 weeks.

Since I haven't had the time to get back to the easel, I thought it'd be a nice distraction to see what's in bloom on our prairie remnant here at the present time. In the last blog, Golden Alexander was in bloom...it still is, even more so. But now we're in the midst of Fringed Puccoon, Blue-eyed and White-eyed Grass, and Prairie Violets.


The Fringed Puccoon is a native plant with butter yellow colored flowers. It, like most early prairie natives, is a shorter statured plant of maybe 8-10 inches or so with multiple blossoms. This plants can really move around and make headway on a prairie site. We started with only 3-4 surviving plants on our remnant but now have upwards of 50 and they're moving around quite well. I think the ants have a hand in spreading the seeds, as they do the Prairie Violets.

Prairie Violet being visited by an ant

The Prairie Violet is a special early prairie flower here...we have less than a half dozen plants. I look deftly for it each spring, and some springs it cannot be found. I suspect it suffered (as all the forbs on our prairie remnant) over the years from spraying and over grazing here before we arrived. I found them again this year after not seeing any since 2006 so I'm hopeful they'll gain a few more progeny this season! Prairie Violets are different in appearance from the more common violet by their leaves. Common violets have a familiar rounded leaf whereas this small prairie native has a rosette of basal leaves that are deeply lobed in a palmate structure...you can see this in the image below.

Prairie Violet - note the palmate leaf structure

One native Prairie flower we see each year here and along the road side is Blue-eyed Grass. (below)

Blue-eyed Grass at Prairie Hill Farm

This "very" small wild flower is from the iris family (Iridaceae)...the seeds from this plant are about half the size of a typical pin head! The flower itself is usually around about a half inch in size, maybe slightly smaller. There are two flowers of the same genus one is this Blue-eyed Grass - the other is the White-eyed Grass. I believe the Blue-eyed Grass here on the Prairie Hill Farm remnant is the "Sisyrinchium campestre" but there are many variants of this small flower...most on our remnant are paler blue to white, however those on the road nearby are blue, so I'm not positive of the variant causes.


I look for this little plant each May around the 15th...it showed up in time as usual but is now about in it's last week of flower here...they're easy to overlook as they close later in the day or during cloudy cool weather (as we're having now), and are only around 5-6 inches tall here...they look just like grass after the flowers are finished which may be why they have occassionally escaped being sprayed by unsuspecting farmers here.

If I'm going to be stuck inside working this spring, I'll take any opportunity I can to escape for a little walk through our prairie to get some fresh air and recharge. Take some of the same for yourtself if you can! Spring will be over soon!

Golden Alexander

Here at Prairie Hill Farm the prairie is slow to awaken. We've already had plenty of the spring woodland wildflowers in our grove come and go and others coming into their peak, but our first flush of spring on the prairie pasture here is now underway and the honor goes to a member of the carrot family: the Golden Alexander. This native perennial with compound umbels of small yellow flowers is not largely impressive by itself but in large groups can be a great sight for early spring.

The things I like about this forb is all the pollinators that it brings in, and it's a sign of more to come! I wait all winter for the prairie to wake back up and although it's not the first forb to bloom in the tallgrass (that goes to the Pasque Flower), it is the first one here...may the blooming continue!

Great Stage

The best place around here to watch amazing things unfurl is right here at Prairie Hill Farm. This gives me so much fodder for images...whether they be as photographs or painting ideas.

Late this afternoon we had two storm systems sandwich us...we were fortunate they both missed as the one pictured here had a tornado embedded in it. The tornado was about 7-8 miles east of us so we couldn't see it on the other side of the storm that spawned it.


This is an amazing time of the year, but a time to respect and watch in awe as that great stage is opened for all to see!


Here's to spring on the Tallgrass!

Break...

("Soo Landing in Early Spring" 6X8" plein air oil painting)

We've been getting some very cool damp days lately. Seemed to slow things down as far as the spring wildflowers and flowering trees. Our Wild Plums outside the studio have been swollen and waiting for a warm cue the past few days...now I think we have a break coming!

I decided to take advantage of this break in the scheme of things to get in some short painting practice. I feel very bad to let so much time pass in between paintings, but I need to take care of living issues like most everyone else. I have a couple big jobs taking all my efforts at the moment but decided I needed to be true to myself and scratch that itch today.

I drive by this location several times a year and on driving by last week, I thought this would be a nice location for plein air painting. The trees are still trying to shed the sheaths of their buds and some are just breaking into leaf...just starting to green up the river valley. This is the Little Sioux River a few miles south of here and what is called "Soo Landing". The river wasn't high like it should be this time of year but we're a little short on rain so far this spring.

The landing isn't in the best of shape but affords a nice river bend view to the northeast...you wouldn't even have to get out of your vehicle...which would be my preference come Black fly season! (This is a great river for them.)

Well...back to work I guess...nice to take a break though!

Herp Chorus

I've been mostly holed up in the studio today as the rain patters on the roof...something about tin roofs that brings to mind being outdoors camping. Love the sound and the sensation of it.

(Northern Leopard Frog)

I also love the sounds of the Chorus and Northern Leopard Frogs at this time of year! The first frogs to "sing" in our region of the prairie are the Western Chorus Frogs and Northern Leopard Frogs.

Many years ago when I was in my early teens I caught several Chorus Frogs and put them in a gallon jar and took them home. My mother (God bless her!) tolerated my habit of releasing frogs and toads in the basement of the house. I told her they'd help keep the silverfish and centipedes down (we lived in an older home). I hadn't released the Chorus Frogs yet though...don't remember why but just sat the jar in a corner by the furnace.

Later in the night my Dad woke up to noise coming up the furnace register...it was still chilly at night in the spring and he thought the furnace fan was making the noise...got up , went downstairs to the basement and turned on the light. As soon as the light came on the noise stopped! He was puzzled but having been roused from a dead sleep he just turned the light out and went back upstairs and back to bed.

Sometime later the noise rising from the furnace ducts woke him again...back downstairs and on comes the light...the noise stops again! He's a bit miffed by now and wide awake so he looks around and there on the floor next to the furnace is a gallon honey jar full of frogs...Ha!

I always think of that when I hear Chorus frogs anymore! Just love it!



If you've ever heard Chorus Frogs you know how they sound...very much like running your finger along a fine toothed comb. And Leopard Frogs kind of remind me of the noise made when you run your thumb along the surface of a balloon...with a few low grunts thrown in. Take a listen while watching the video above.

We're opening the windows at night now and catching a few "zzzzz's" with the neighborhood frogs serenading us...great ambiance!

From The Tallgrass...A Book

Something that I've had in the works for some time is a portfolio of works that summarizes my direction as an artist over the past three decades or so. "From The Tallgrass" is now in book form and available "now" online and soon at the Prairie Hill Farm Studio.

I must say I was very pleased with the print quality of the color and the B&W work in the book. If you wanted a visual synopsis of the Tallgrass Prairie and my painting, drawing, and photography over the years...this is it. If you're a collector...you may see some familiar pieces in there as well.

Available as softbound, hardbound w/dust jacket (recommend), or hardbound w/image wrap (with either I'd recommend the "premium" paper choice)- you can check it out online Here or just click on the book cover above or the link on the side of the online blog.

Thank you to all who have supported my work through the years, I hope to bring you more in the years ahead...

...Bruce

Spring on the Tallgrass

It's now officially spring on the Tallgrass Prairie! The Pasque Flowers are in bloom.

I'm practicing "Phenology" again, as I mentioned back on the 24th of March. This year (in NW Iowa) things are a bit behind the rest of the state...in fact we still have some good snow drifts along the black tops and back roads here today. But we may have broken the cold streak and turned the corner! Well, one can always hope.

I'm extremely tied up with freelance work at the moment and have not had any creative or even relaxed time lately, so I try and take advantage of those small windows of opportunity as they present themselves. Yesterday (Tuesday) I had to go to a meeting at the Prairie Heritage Center SE of here...if I went about an hour early I could stop along the way and check out the Pasque Flower progress and possibly get some pictures.

Except for the lack of more time I wasn't dissapointed, the flowers were up and the wind was down (lack of wind is almost unheard of around here!). There was more going on there than I could take advantage of so I'm hopeful of a return trip or two in the next couple weeks. I'm also hoping for some more windows of opportunity in general around here this spring...we all need those moments to our selves...to take in the natural world and charge the batteries!