To just stand in the woods and breathe in the green. Blue sky stretching overhead. Birds calling from behind the expanding leaves. I swear you can hear it growing. One of the prolific plants just starting to bloom right now is Wild Sarsaprilla. Under the canopy of three sets of three to five leaves, on a separate stem are two to seven umbrels ( a round cluster of flowers). I thought the umbrels came in sets of three, but after finding them in sets of 2, 3, 4, and 5, further research taught me that there can be up to seven umbrels on one stem. There is always something new to learn!

I saw the first Showy Orchids of the year on Camphill land on Sunday. If you keep an eye on the ground along the trail through the woods, you might see this charming white and purple peeking out from under the other foliage. Columbine are dangling about knee high. Wild geranium are light purple spots on the green.

If you were to go out to the boggy areas you could still see Early Yellow Coralroot, Strawberries and Raspberries blooms, and Bunchberries! The Showy Ladyslippers have started to come up in towers of leaves, but no flowers in sight yet. Higher up in the bushes are the Chokecherries, although most of the apple and plums are gone already.

I was blessed with a tiny vision of blue, flitting around a small meadow. Stalking it with my camera I managed to get a shot of both the upper and lower sides of the wings. It was a good thing I did, because identification would not of been possible with just the upper blue side. It is called a Silvery Blue! And here I had been discounting the little blue butterflies all as Spring Azures! Now my walks will slow even more as I try and stalk elusive butterflies and dragonflies, in hopes of identifying them. Pretty soon I will just be at a stand still out there!

Go out and just breathe. Life is good in the woods!