May 13, 2008.
May 14, 2008:
May 16, 2008:
May 18, 2008:
May 20, 2008:
...and it's about damned time.
For the non-naturalists among you, those are trillium (T. grandiflorum), trillium, trillium, elderberry (Sambucus canadensis), trillium, and -- you guessed it! -- more trillium, this time with a tiny side of violets (the blurry purple blotches at back right).
The trillium are fading now.
June 1, 2008.
The white flowers turn pinkish-mauve as they fade.
The purple violets are largely done, but now we have yellow flowers.
Yes, dandelions, of course, but what I really meant were the tiny yellow violets at the left.
Tomorrow we examine some other aspects of spring. Class dismissed.
* * * * *
I took all these photos in the narrowish band of woods between our house and our neighbors'. If you look very, very closely at the upper left corner of the fifth photo you can see a tiny bit of our neighbor's green LP tank; at the upper right you can see some of his house, happily painted a low-key shade of light brown. I hate it when someone plants a suburban-looking house in the woods and paints it blue or yellow or pink.
This area of woods is carpeted in trillium every spring, and every year it delights me anew. The woods on the other side of the house are more predominantly coniferous (if I were a really good blogger I would go out there right now and identify those conifers. Sorry, too lazy.) and are not good trillium habitat. But there are largish swatches of forest that I pass every time I drive into town to pick up a gallon of milk or a book at the library or even to go to crunch some tax forms in The Big City. And I feel so, so lucky to live here every time I do that.
