more woods floor

A swash of mayapples with a little phlox.

Then the sun came out.

Phlox with highlights.

random flowering trees

A late redbud using a cedar for background.

Some dogwoods lurking deep in the woods.

Pretending to be part of a larger tree.

hostas

I get so excited when the hostas unfurl themselves every year. They are so reliable. It's a welcoming kind of excitement, not the "Thank goodness they made it!" kind.

Green growing things, hurray!

dogwoods opening

At first, they still look green.

Or maybe grey-green.

Then they open more.

And more.

Until the flowers are completely white.

And the leaves begin to unfold.

rain

Last week the total rainfall measured in my rain gauge was 6.2 inches/15.7 cm. One of the days the total for twenty-four hours was three inches. It stopped raining about noon, and by the time I got home from work and got down to the creek with the camera, there was less water than I expected.

The bluebells had been underwater.

You can see how the grass has been combed in one direction by the current.

There's still plenty of water. Most of the time there are more rocks than riffle.

Here's the standing water left in the field.

The debris indicates the water was moving fairly fast.

I'm glad the house is far uphill from here.

another sun shadow

I can't decide whether this one looks like a horse's head with flowers braided into the mane, or a gunboat in action seen from above.

forest floor

Small things. Things I have to get down low to see.

Phlox.

Mayapples, at all stages of development in the same area.

See the furled umbrella?

They open a bit.

Almost all the way, and you can see the bud, that will be the mayapple flower, and then, looking almost as it does now, the mayapple.

greening

The trees don't have any (many) leaves yet, but the woods floor is greening up.

And so are my pansy pots.

nuthatches

I spotted this pair of nuthatches exploring the tree outside my balcony.

They kept checking out the hole.

Also the rest of the area.

But they don't seem to have moved in. They would have made such nice neighbours.

sun shadow

Another light picture made by the sun through my glass fan window over the front door.

I know the sun only moves so much, and the window only captures so much light, but it produces enough variety that I'm never tired of the light sculpture it makes.

courting dance

Yesterday the weather was lovely, and the turkeys thought so, too. A flock of them came much closer to the house than usual. I went carefully and slowly to get the camera, and for once they didn't all head for the woods as soon as I came to the window.

When the tom began trailing a wing for this hen, the others all went farther downhill and continued eating.

She circled with him:

And crouched:

He is a fine fellow, isn't he?

But she seemed to lose interest and went back to her lunch in spite of his display:

Soon, they rejoined the rest of the flock and gradually disappeared.