Early spring in the Ozarks is a mixed bag. Soon the hills will erupt in color, but not just yet. The trees are still bare but budding. Sometimes if you want to see what’s going on you have to get closer – much closer.
I have been getting up close and personal with nature – collecting shots with my Leica Macro lens. Sometimes when you get close you see beauty or complexity in the most mundane things. Color emerges, structure is revealed, discoveries are made.
The dandelion is far more complex that it appears from the seat of my mower deck. The center is almost crystalline.
These cover the fields all over this area – they look like a floating purple cloud from a distance. Up close they are more leaves than flowers, but those flowers are so delicate – less than an eighth of an inch across.
I love johnny-jump-ups, and these remind me of those but much, much smaller. This tiny violet is less than a half-inch across.
From eye level this looks like moss on a rock. When you get down to ground level it is much more complex than expected.
These hyacinths are at the end of their cycle. They mysteriously appeared a couple of years ago after my neighbor encouraged me to plant bulbs in the remains of an old cistern.
I don’t know what these are, but they look a lot like some I have seen in my neighbor’s flower beds. They are new this year. Thank you garden fairy!
Here’s a closer shot of that blue flower – there is so much structure to these flowers when you get close.
I think this is some form of bluets – it measures about a quarter-inch across.
I’m pretty sure this is southern bluets. Tiny and white.
Is this the skull of an owl? Nah, it’s just the shell of a black walnut – it was probably a winter meal for a squirrel.
The field around the Stone House is a mix of blue grass, clover, and low ground cover like this. An inch-long feather rests atop the ground cover.
I don’t know what this is, but it is very tiny – smaller than a head of a pencil. It is so small that its color is not even visible until you get very close to the ground.
I see these every year, they are low – under the grass. This one seems to have extra petals. I love its star-shaped foliage.
This is ice – water frozen in the bird bath.
Daffodil buds emerging.
Water condensing inside the stalk of a daffodil.
Getting these shots required me to get down in the dirt and undergrowth. Getting closer is not always easy, but is usually worth it.
the eff stop 
Reblogged this on kumardeepakdhiman and commented:
very nice pic……………………….
Nice colors you have here! 🙂
Thanks – springtime is the best!
Wonderful macros (and I think it might be a grape hyacinth you were asking about).
I’m always amazed at the detail in some of these early spring blooms which are so tiny. Thanks for sharing them.
Thanks – yes, grape hyacinth is the consensus. I love seeing the detail in these tiny things.
Now these photos are really out of this world… magnificent macros… I love them… just shows when one gets down and closer to the ground there is just so much to see… wonderful share…
Thanks Bulldog – I find that as spring starts I get anxious to find subject matter – macro is the best I can do for a week or so 🙂
Love, love, love your captures – Happy Monday:)
Thanks! And happy Monday to you too!
The colors in these pictures are INCREDIBLE!
Thanks – I can’t really take any credit for that:) I love these early spring flowers – a field of them can look like a cloud of color from a distance.
Blue flower closeup….INCREDIBLE colour. Gorgeous structure. Such a soft presence in that photo. Wow!
Thank you – I love shooting macro because you see all that when you get close – flowers have such complexity. The blue on that flower is amazing – it is really that blue.
I love grape hyacinth! My grandmother used to have them growing all over her yard and gardens. She liked them too much to pull them out or cut them down.
I love them too – didn’t know what they were until today 🙂 I have loved seeing them at the neighbor’s place.
Beautiful pictures, as always, Lorri. I love the tiny white ones, and the ones with the star backdrop.
And yes, that’s definitely a hyacinth. I can tell because the moment I saw it my nose ran. I have few allergies, but the year that every secretary in my office got a hyacinth for Secretary’s day — there were 50 or so of them — introduced me to that special feeling when your respirator system shuts down. But outside, from a distance, they are one of the prettiest flowers.
Ahhhh, choo!
Sorry to make you sneeze 🙂 I love the tiny white ones too – so detailed.
I’m allergic to almost everything, but those don’t seem to bother me. Being inside and enclosed space with them though – that would be awful if you were allergic to them. Yikes!
Gorgeous, these are, Lorri! 🙂 The cluster is grape hyacinth (one of my husband’s favourite flowers and we have several in our garden), they come in white as well. The tiny weeny little flower is probably a Speedwell. It’s about the same size as a forget-me-not flower.
Thanks Val – Speedwell – I googled it and I think that’s it! I love the hyacinth – It came up just a bit after the pink hyacinth. I just discovered it yesterday.
Oh my gosh, Lorri – these are fantastic – love the tiny flowers – so much detail when you are allowed to see this close – beautiful beautiful! K
Thanks Kathleen – I love seeing these in the springtime. I really don’t know much about what most of them are called – there are so many typed. I love spring! L
You found a lot of beauty up close. I especially like the blue berries.
Thanks Lyle – I never knew those had such detail until I got down to their level.
Do the blue ones open up wider? They look like what my mother used to grow called bluebells. They are all beautiful. It’s amazing what one can find when one really stops long enough to look. You have a great eye Lorri!
Thanks Jackie – I have been informed that they are grape hyacinths – they don’t open very far as I recall. I had something similar in Oregon called pop irises, but they multiplied – I think this is an annual.
ah ok, I’m not as good as my mom with flowers. ha! No matter they look wonderful
Thanks – I am pretty clueless as to the identity of most of them.
Lorri, I love that little blue flower whose colour you can’t even seen unless you bother to get close enough to look! It reminds me of how easy it is to NOT notice people, their gifts and talents and the contributions they make in our world…unless we actually get up close and really look. ❤
That’s a great thought! I was thinking something similar today about how you can look at the terrain and think there’s no color at all, or you can look closer and find treasure. It allies to people too 🙂
or no life (in the case of terrain) I guess in the case of people too!
Great photographs, all of them!
I think these blue flowers (you’ve also seen in your neighbour’s flower beds) are called muscari. The complete latin designation is Muscari botryoides.They are bulbous plants and you can find them in different shades of blue and in white. The are in my garden, too. ^^
Thanks – I believe you are correct – I see they are called grape hyacinths here. Not a wild flower, someone had to plant it there for me to find 🙂
Beautiful blue!
The first blues of spring are the most vivid!
Yeah!
Beautiful Blur
Thank you!
Beautiful images. Those blue flowers are to die for!
Thanks – I love the blue ones as well.
Wow, i like a lot… so beautiful!
Thanks so much!
Bring the spring!!!!
I agree – I am tired of winter!
Stunning!
Thank you!