Sometimes, a photo is just a photo.    Taken on the correct day with a sprinkling of luck and good light, it might even become a keeper.

(click on each to enlarge, naturally)

Iowa tends to get extremely brown after the extreme cold of winter and the menacing snows and sheets of ice, so when it first all melts, it’s easy to imagine that the world has completely died off.     That is, of course, until some little guy like this one that popped up by our foundation on a random side of the house reminds you that in the midst of the dead earth, all you need is a little courage and beautiful things can happen.