spring ephemeral sprawl

We took a hike on Easter morning and I was so excited to see the spring ephemerals out!  As the name suggests, they're the woodland flowers that bloom for a few weeks and then disappear.  

Bloodroot is one of my favorites.  They wear their leaves like little green cloaks before opening up.

Lots of Spring Beauties...

Duchmen's Breeches...

Young May Apples!!

The forest floor was absolutely carpeted with Yellow Trout Lily leaves.  Millions and millions!  Only a few were blooming...I think it's going to be amazing there within a week!

I also saw wild Wood Phlox, Rue Anemone, and big swatches of Columbine leaves...and the first pollinators of the season!

So nice to walk around the lake...

...see the budding trees...

...and a little wildlife!

(opossum tracks)

I've been seeing a bit of activity at home, too.  Several large coyotes have been loping around the barnyard some mornings.

They look very well-fed!  Claudia definitely stays close after she catches their scent.

It's a beautiful time of year to walk around the property.  Red-winged Blackbirds are nesting in the front pond...

...while others are keeping an eye toward our porch rafters as a potential nesting spot.

The field grass is growing quickly, and Todd is mowing down the taller bits before the early summer bush-hogging.

As quickly as I can, I'm getting seedlings, like these iceland poppies, planted in the garden.

This backfired on me last week, when we had a string of unseasonably cold days, with one night down to 20 degrees!  This caused an extraordinary amount of work for us.  I had to go around covering flowering bulbs and tender sprouts in the front garden...

...while Todd pounded stakes down the middle of our planted row.  Over the stakes went the frost cloth, very difficult to secure against the fence side, and then whatever bedding/towels/tablecloths that I could spare from the house to doubly insulate.

This whole mess had to be peeled back during the day, so that the seedlings could get some light.  I grumbled the whole time, but it worked - although some seedlings had frost damage to the outer tips of their leaves.  Lesson learned:  even if a seedling is frost hardy, no setting them out if there's even a chance of a freeze within a 10-day period...i.e., probably wait until April.  

Fingers crossed that we're now onto a mild, comfortable spring.  

Have a great week!