Springing

Della and Elvis took me on a five miler late this afternoon. I didn't have any specific plans or goals for the hike, other than burning some calories, but it wasn't long before I realized that this was going to be a spring wildflower walk. 

Rabbit spotting. He was sitting right in the center of the trail looking like a snack.

The humble yet extraordinary violet is one of my favorite spring wildflowers.

I've seen pictures posted lately of Virginia bluebells in bloom and I headed down to the river where I've seen them before. Once I made that much of a plan I knew I was going to be going a pretty good distance. We crossed the stream and headed uphill, which seems incongruous given that we were headed to the river, but there's a high spit of land between the stream and the river. I slowed the pace a bit going uphill but all the miles I've put in recently have made a difference and we reached the top without me asking the dogs for a pull. From there it's down a long gully to a sandy area of river bottom land. That's where I've seen bluebells in the past and it did not disappoint today.

It's no surprise that the fertile river bottom land was home to several other bloomers as well.

It's a little early yet for the time of year I call the greening, when the trees are leafing out and predominant color of the forest changes from brown to green, but it's coming. The shrubs of the understory are turning green and the trees aren't far behind.

We finished five miles just about the time of sunset, about 7:30 p.m. There enough light for one more mile, but I decided to save that for another day.

Redbuds are in bloom now too, but my pictures of them from a distance in the woods didn't show up very well although they are beautiful there. I took these in our front yard when I got back home.

One of my favorite MCC songs.