Spring is officially here--I hope

It's getting warm enough to work in the woods a bit, so that's a good sign. Here are a few pix of some of the early wildflowers and naturalized bulbs that are blooming. In a few days, bluebells and toothwort will cascade down the hillside.

Never mind that I lost a pair of glasses on Monday when I went out to photograph the flowers--they were old ones, at least, and might turn up as I wander the woods.

There's a lot of debris on the ground from the two windstorms we've had since September. I break up the small branches and throw them around the woods. The bigger limbs I carry to the edge of the woods and pile them up until I can get to them.


I've found a couple dozen honeysuckle seedlings and a few garlic mustard sprouts, but if I keep after them, I won't have the onslaught I had to deal with when I started my woodland project 7 years ago.

Update on the woods

I honestly thought the woods was doomed when we had the alternating heat-and-freeze weather attacks the past few weeks. Even the may-apples looked like boiled cabbage. Things seem to be blooming in strange sequences, though. Some early bloomers like spring beauty are only now showing up. Happily, most things seem to have bounced back and the woods is beautifully abloom. The bluebells are spreading, so instead of one patch by the patio, there are now splotches of blue throughout the woods. I planted some wild blue flox a couple of years ago and they are finally blooming. There is another patch that I think might be from dormant seeds of the ones that we enjoyed years ago. The entire woods used to be filled with phlox until the honeysuckle took over. I'm still patrolling to keep the honeysuckle from coming back and to prevent the garlic-mustard from going to seed. I only find one or two now, which is so amazing when you consider that the woods was choked with both five years ago when I started this project. I did find colonies of flowering garlic-mustard under the huge fir trees last night. They are very sneaky and were hiding in there. They're history now.

If you're new to my blog, you might be interested in the story of my woodland restoration project on my website or my pictures of the wildflowers in the woods. Some of those shown haven't survived, but many are flourishing. I'm happy to let nature work out the natural balance. I love to walk through the my little quarter-acre woods and enjoy the view from my windows.