Book Cover, Close Looks in a Spring Woods, by Author & Photographer ©Martha McKeen Welch.  Book Cover photographs and text in this article  may not be used without written permission from ©Mardi Welch Dickinson/KymryGroup™ All Rights Reserved.

May is a beautiful time to get out into the woods, walk around and investigate what is growing in the woods. There are many treasures to find in the undergrowth. My mother, the late Martha McKeen Welch, was the author and photographer of this wonderful book “Close Looks in a Spring Woods”, published in 1981 by Dodd, Mead & Company. This was the last of her seven award winning books that were published.

Here some pearls of wisdom found in this book. Find your own.

The days lengthen and the sun thaws the frozen land. Rain now falls instead of snow, soaking into the softening earth. The woods look bare and lifeless, but underground wondrous changes are occurring. Seeds scattered at random the previous summer and fall start to swell and sprout. Roots inactive during the cold winter send up stems toward the air and sun. Eggs laid months before in a sheltered spot quiver and hatch. Buds on trees expand, bursting their scaly winter coverings.

Through deft text and close-up photographs, Mrs. Welch shows young readers not only what comes to life in a springs woods, but also where this budding life comes from. Each season contains the start of the next.

Everything that emerges in spring comes from something that was left, in protected form, to last the winter. And within the delicate beauty of spring are the first formations of things that will mature and ripen during the summer.

What better way to celebrate spring and Children’s Book Week! Celebrate the joy of reading this week. Read to your child or grandchild have your child or grandchild read to you.

This is a perfect time to go to your local library with your kids or grandkids and help them pick out a book to read or for you to read to them. I spent many hours sitting on my parents lap while they read me book after book from the library. I absolutely loved it.

If your library is one of the lucky ones, they may very well have this book, plus the other six. If not, here are a few libraries below that have it. Help support your local Libraries, to make sure they are around for future generations to come.

My mother’s additional books are. Saucy; Pudding and Pie, Nibbit; Just Like Puppies; Will That Wake Mother? and Sunflower!

Bedford Hills Free Library:                                           http://www.bedfordhillsfreelibrary.org/

Bedford Free Library:                                                              http://www.bedfordfreelibrary.org/

Katonah Village Library:                                                            http://www.katonahlibrary.org/

For additional information, please contact Mardi Welch Dickinson at mardi@kymrygroup.com or 203-846-0359.