The Morning Wander

Our walk to the paperbox on the weekends becomes more of a journey in the late spring. Mike becomes a weed extracting machine, no weed goes undetected and there are always many to pull, or at least remove their flowers untill he can get there with the weed whip or herbacide. The cats come along, usually Gazpacho only makes it halfway before turning around, but they both need many attention breaks,

 2/3 mile 'round trip is a long way for a cat without any attention!

I bring the camera and am distracted by all of the wildflowers blooming and other plants. We talk about all the plants and practice our horticultural latin and verify with the books when we get home. Mike has his cup of coffee and I have my cup of tea and we have to balance sipping and weed picking and foto taking and holding the paper and petting the cat...multi tasking in the truest sense and most relaxing sense!

 Calypso Orchid~Fairyslipper~Calypso bulbosa

 Wild Saparilla~Aralia Nudicaulis

We haven't noticed this flower before, we see the leaves all the time.

We think it is the very wet spring that is drawing our attention to these blooms.

 Starflower False Solomons Seal~Smilasina stellata

 Bunchberry~Canadian Dogwood~cornus canadensis

 Fairybells~disporum tracycarpum

bunchberry & yellow violet 

 wild apple

 wild strawberry~fragraria virginiana

 Oregon Grape~mahonia aquafolium

 wild strawberry, just past flowering & ready to make a berry.

 beech fern-thelypteris phegopteris

heart shaped leaf (violet) by a rock with moss. 

 Just past the fork in the lane on the way home.

 kinnickinnick~bear berry~arctostaphylos uva ursi

bunch berry with a pinker center! beautiful!

This year with all the rain, the world around us is very lush and clean and verdant.

The water drops on everything make the world shine with a different light.

oregon grape with rain drop and note the pollen in the center of the rain drop.