Spring in the Woods

Again He gives commandment;
The winds of summer blow.
The snow and ice are melted,
Again the waters flow.

Psalter 402:5b
a versification of Psalm 147

Spring officially happened over a week ago, and many of us in Michigan felt a little let down at the return to freezing temperatures. After a week indoors, it seemed to me that a walking tour of springtime in the woods might be worth a little cold.

It was!

Before I even left the yard: crocuses. This lavender-striped variety is my favorite. Isn’t that deep purple at the base spectacular?

Giant Crocus boring through natural mulch.

Entering the woods, I found clusters of Snowdrops naturalized from the Centennial Farm my sister and her husband now own. His grandmother’s green thumb is evident in swathes of perennials, faithfully returning and spreading each year.

Purity in white and green

Heading into swampland, I’m grateful that the cold has firmed the access road enough to support my walking shoes. Only a week ago, it was knee-boots only. Another sign of spring!

But I’m not alone. Suddenly the scent of buck musk fills the air, almost strong enough to make me gag. Assuming the deer is straight upwind from me, I know I won’t see him, because he’s also backed by the blazing sun nearing the horizon. Canny beast! There’s a reason he has evaded local hunters this long.

And he’s not alone, either.

Tracks: how many kinds do you see?

Fawn prints are another welcome sign of spring!

The snow has been gone for a few weeks in this area. Although standing water still freezes over at night, it’s draining away to the major ditches en route to Lake Michigan.  Remember crunching “hollow ice” in the mud puddles when you were a kid?

Hollow ice

Trees make wonderful reflections on swamp water, even as their shadows reveal the colors under water.

Swamp thaw

Time to head back home. The angle of the sun is glancing off early-blooming moss in the north yard, contrasting red stems to green base. Not sure how well I captured it here….

Blooming moss

Thank you for walking with me!

PS. If you were counting types of tracks, the number I found was five:  three kinds of vehicle, the fawn, and me.

Naturalized Snowdrops, Spring, 2015