Dirty Dishes...

Shhhh. Don't tell anyone. I left dirty dishes in the sink, clothes strewn across the unmade bed, and a mess of papers tossed on the table next to a half filled cup of coffee I abandoned.

Why?

Spring Ephemerals. You know the flowers that come up in the spring for a few days and then disappear until next year.

If I miss them, I am sad to have to wait for another chance at it again in the spring.

My friend Pat wanted to come along and see these flowers for herself. She has caught the bug of  finding flowers, native plants, and of course mushrooms. Great minds think alike. 

We decided to meet in town at 7AM and head out.

I haven't had anyone else like my early morning hikes [I do them a lot in the warmer months to avoid the heat]. So I jumped at the chance.

Here is a shot of Pat taking a shot of a trillium. We seem to enjoy shots of each other from behind...

Here is her shot of me and Hannah...

Charlie stayed home. He was informed that he needed a rest day. 
[He was not impressed and held a grudge against both myself and Hannah when we got home! A pouting dog!]

Below are Bishops Caps

I know, I should link to the scientific name

but I like the common names better.

They are easier to remember.

 Another favorite one of mine.

Ginger

The flowers are under the foliage 

like they are hiding!

Mayflowers. Mayapples.

As a kid I called them Umbrella Plants.

I think that describes them well.

They have not flowered yet.

I'm not very good at telling different ferns apart. 

These were ferns unfurling.

Yellow Rocket. 

I've always

seen this as just a weed but found 

out it is edible. Not that I have 

tried it.

We found this flower too, but it was hard

to figure it out.
Swamp Buttercup
I think years ago I just called it a buttercup and

left it at that.

This plant is easy to overlook.

It is tiny and grows in very shaded areas.

I believe it is a False or Wild Lily of
the Valley.

The green in the middle will have tiny white flowers.

Oh... last but not least...

There was this wild Thing we had with us. Her energy was boundless and she showed off by leaping up on logs and diving off from them with wild abandon.

We applauded her achievements and laughed. She handled the hike like it was second nature to her.

I was surprised when I got home that the Dirty Dishes were still there, as was the other messes I'd left. Apparently the Dish Faery and the Housekeeping Faery had also taken the morning off.

Birdy Birdy! And Rainy Day

Happy May Day.. a day short!

This Oriole has a super dark chest and was only around for a little bit yesterday. A female Oriole chased him off the feeder and he eventually disappeared.

This brightly colored one has been staying around. Was the one above an Orchard Oriole? That may be the first time I've seen one of those here!

This one below is an Baltimore Oriole? 
Anyway, they are brilliant in color and provide a lot of entertainment.

May 1st was also the first day we saw a Hummingbird.

I like rainy days. Not downpour windy gusty lightening blowing driving rainy days. But days with light rain are fine. They are especially great for going out in the forest to find cool things.

The all day rain and the humidity can create mystical scenes in the macro world. I intended to just go out and browse plants but once I saw the droplets, I knew I had to get down and dirty in the mud and dirt to enjoy what surprises the forest had for me.

When I saw water clinging to plants and moss. I just had to go macro.

Mayapples or we called them Maypoles or Mayflowers.

Moss Sporophytes with rain drops.

Wild Strawberry plants.

I found some emerging Maidenhair ferns and laid on the steep bank to put my Mini me and Mini Charlie next to them.

In the corner of my vision, I saw something quite strange. It looked like slime mold. But it hadn't been warm enough to form in the forest yet .. I thought.

It looked like delicate webs topped with blobs and water. I've never seen anything like it.

Take pictures. Explore it. Admire its strange beauty. And then try to figure out what it was I was seeing!

I was able to find info on this delicate beauty on a New Zealand website called The Hidden Forest. The author says it is the reproduction system of Liverworts. I thought it was moss, but I can find that spot again I will look under the moss to see if I can find different leaves.

From the website:

In leafy liverworts the antheridia produce mobile antherozoids (sperm), which require a film of water in which to move to the archegonia, where fertilisation takes place. After fertilisation, a new plant develops, which remains attached to the parent plant. This is the sporophyte.

I had a penny in my pocket so I stuck it behind the structure to measure for size....

Isn't that the most amazing thing you've ever seen? Okay, maybe not. But I love the little things found in mosses and along the forest floor.

Here is a couple more moss shots...

and I think this is or was a fungi of some sort.

It was on a stick so you can imagine how small it was.
I had to get down in the dirt and wet mud for these shots but it was so intriguing to see.

I do love rainy days.

Everything Everywhere and All At Once!

 

I think Spring gets me going just like Fall does. I feel like I am missing something out in the woods...except in the opposite direction.

I want to be digging in the flower garden and creating beauty when all sorts of activity is also happening out there...in the woods, in the pastures...

Everything Everywhere and All At Once!

I save part of a day to take a walk. I have to or I'd go crazy. After chores, I generally walk up to get yesterday's mail through the neighbor's woods.

These scrubby trees have reddish green leaves opening up. I have no idea what they are but with the morning light shining through the leaves...
well, it was beautiful and worth stopping to look at.

I'm afraid that we got distracted by the buds on the trees and took the long way around to the mailbox.
I noticed that the tiny fruit tree near the road was going to flower. There are two of these trees in one place. They have evil thorns that rip and tear. No wonder no creature has eaten them in the past 20 some years. 
They have never gotten large and I really have no idea what they are.

Dogwoods near the mailbox! We finally made it there! I riot of colors is coming quickly. Can I see it all at once?

Garlic mustard. It is now everywhere. However, it has good flavor so I picked some to use in my salad for supper.

After I made lunch and arranged for a friend to pick up our 4 wheeler and give it an oil change, I headed back out to the woods. Rumor had it that someone in our part of Wisconsin had found some grey morel mushrooms.
That is my go-to excuse to get out in the woods in the spring. 

Below is one of our patches of Wild Ramps. It is huge.

There is an issue with people now going out to find them and digging these plants up and selling them. It takes years for these plants to grow. I take a few each year to eat fresh and a few to dehydrate.

I leave the rest because they are so beautiful to see in the Spring. They do flower and spread seeds which take quite a while to grow into an edible Wild Ramp.
In the photo below, they are mixed in with Mayapples and Virginia Spring Beauties.

Spring is a wonderland after months of winter.

Carpets of Spring Beauties

Woodland Lilies --
Not Lily of the Valley

Ferns of all kinds poking up...

As Charlie and I were headed home from the back part of our property, a Barred Owl flew over us and landed in a tree.
I sat down and grabbed Charlie to stick him in my lap. I suppose he could be the right size for an Owl to think of as dinner for Owlets.

We watched the owl for quite a while.

It struck me then that I'd seen this owl [or maybe one just like it] in this area last year while hunting morel mushrooms. Charlie hadn't been with me then, but I did watch the owl for quite a while. The date was March 15th of last year.

Shot from last year....

I guess I should have remembered. Charlie seems to have a good sense of when to stay close. When he hears large hawks or the twitter of an eagle, he usually scoots right between my feet.

Spring is coming on hard. We'll have warmer temps and some nice rain to get things moving along.

Meanwhile, I'm outta here to watch the forest come alive...

Busy day

Tuesday, the sun came out and melted off more snow. Charlie and I headed to the woods to see how the rest of the fences faired out. We wanted to see if the Virginia Spring Beauties were still around and look for other signs that Spring was coming despite the snowfall.

I was surprised that the electric lines were just fine except in the places where the deer had knocked them off their insulators. I took an insulator count for replacement.

We found Pheasant Back mushrooms forming on a tree that fell over the winter.

This surely was a sign of spring!

In fact we had to sit down on the forest floor and get a closer look:

When we did, we found this in the leaves!

And we found Mayapples or as my Grandmother called them Maypole flowers. I don't know why but she did.

Of course there was Frank the Trooper Dude who decided to sit on a log and get in touch with Nature. He brought Birdie and they relaxed in the sunlight.

Hobby found some leeks or wild ramps just above the creek where water was actually flowing this Spring from the bountiful moisture and the snow melts.

Soon it will be time to walk along the creek and gather wild parsnip roots for a fresh veggie to be seasoned with wild garlic and some wild ramps. The parsnip and wild garlic are invasive species but eatable so why not eat them?

Wild parsnip roots:

Spring culinary delights await in the woods.