Everywhere you look, preparations are underway.

Sometimes those actions are easily observable. For example, people are preparing for holiday gatherings and festivities, and gray squirrels are lining their nests for additional warmth and stashing away acorns in preparation for winter. Even within our own house, my husband and I have been doing our own preparations – getting ready for the birth of our first child (who’s due any day now!).

But sometimes those preparations are more subtle, and require a slower pace and a keener eye to observe. I found a perfect example of this on a walk I took today at the Red Brook Pond Conservation Area in Bourne: the mayflowers, aka trailing arbutus, have already formed flower buds for next year’s blossoms. This is likely an adaptation that allows these plants to be one of the first to flower in the spring. Despite their name, I’ve seen them flowering on the Cape as early as March. Mayflower is a low growing, rather inconspicuous plant, however, so you’ll have to look closely to notice!

What types of preparations have you been noticing in nature?