Mushrooming

success!! Foraged in a new-to-me location over the weekend...

I'll be going back next year. The yellow morels are done for the year, but I should find oysters all summer long.

Walking a wire

I'm choosing my steps

Carefully

Trying to find my way

Forward or back

I don't yet know

Still

It must be done

For both our sakes

 

I hope you'll step as carefully with me

Whenever possible.

Mostly photos...in fact, very heavy on the photos. I'm having a quiet morning.

Mourning Dove

American Robin

Trillium

Wild Geranium

Beech Tree Graffiti


Jack-in-the-Pulpit

I see a gnome face - in the right-hand branch sticking up.

Dryad's Saddle, edible


 It's my thing

Garlic Mustard
I turned my pickings into pesto

Solomon's Seal

Wild Lupine

Scarlet Tanager
What a find! This is only the second Scarlet Tanager I've found.

Blueberries

Lily-of-the-Valley
The reason I went walking, in honor of my mother.
The end of the wild garlic. I managed to find a few that I used in the pesto.

Shoot, I even found the bottle lying in the woods.
Happy Mother's Day

Lilacs

My neighbor has a very mature Lilac bush growing outside my back door. She tells me to help myself to as much as I like...so I pluck snippets...repeatedly, until they're gone.

I'm trying to write at my kitchen table with this vase in front of me, but the rich, sweet Lilac scent has invaded my senses and I've deserted my writing. My thoughts have run toward my mother and I sit here ruminating about her, again. The scent of Lilacs, Honeysuckle and Lily-of-the-Valley will do that to me.

 

I hope your day is beautiful...I think I'll go to the woods to look for wild Lily-of-the-Valley.

Loda Lake Wildflower Sanctuary

I ran across Loda Lake by accident a few years ago while traveling home via the back roads after kayaking. I marked it on my map, came home and looked it up, but disregarded it for hiking because the trail is only 1.5 miles. I guess I didn't do my research very well because it has a connector to the North Country Trail and it's easy to plan a trip with as many miles as you would like. Fortunately, my hiking group planned a weekend trip to include Loda Lake and, of course, I joined in. Please, enjoy the photos...I certainly enjoyed my hike.

Sharp-lobed Hepatica

Hepatica - note the 3 bracts surrounding the partially open flower

Trout Lily

Spring Beauty

Marsh Marigold, Cowslip

Ostrich Fern fiddle heads, edible - note the groove running down the inside of the stem. This signifies that it is Ostrich and not Cinnamon or Interrupted, neither of which should be eaten.

Cutleaf Toothwort

Trout Lily

Mayapple

Woodland Terrarium - wishing I had picked this up because it would look gorgeous in my garden

Fairy Castle

Hepatica

Partridgeberry

Lesser Scaup

Tree Groundpine

Northern Pitcher Plant, carnivorous

Tree Swallow

Tree Swallow

Serviceberry

Lesson learned: if I happen across someplace that appeals to me, I darned well better get in there and explore it. I could have easily ignored this place for years and never known what a gem it is.