There are more flowers in bloom this week, in spite of the weather. It’s been very cold – below freezing at night and very windy. And this morning we woke up to four inches of fresh snow!

This is the way our view of center valley looked a few days ago.

This is the way it looks this morning.

More snow pictures

Willow flowers encased in snow

Every time I take another snow picture, I think it will be the last one of the spring – and then another storm arrives. I hope this will really be the last one.

Before the snow I found a tiny white violet in bloom along the path behind the house.

Small White Violet – Viola macloskeyi

And Sand Cress is in bloom on Sumac Prairie.

Sand Cress – Arabis lyrata

Rue Anemones has just started blooming in the woods. We don’t have many of the spring ephemerals that are common even 30 miles farther north – in the “Big Woods”. We have no Trilliums and only a little Bloodroot and Wild Ginger. Rue Anemones are our most common spring woodland flower. They grow on all the wooded hillsides.

This is what the plants looked like a few days ago.

Rue Anemone – Anemone thalictroides

These are ones I saw yesterday – after one more day of sunshine.

Here’s some of the Wild Ginger we do have. It only grows in a few places – mostly on the steep sides of ravines and on north-facing wooded slopes. These plants aren’t quite in bloom yet.

Wild Ginger – Asarum canadense

Here are the leaves of a small woodland orchid that we have sprinkled over our hillsides. It’s called Rattlesnake Plantain – Goodyera pubescens.

The spring birds are arriving – every time I go out I see more. I was awakened one morning by the first Eastern Towhee of the spring singing his “Drink Your Tea” song. This is one I saw later in the day on Fallen Oak Point. He was cautiously interested in me, hopping from one Prickly Ash tree to the next to keep me in sight.

There has been so much rain – and snow – that the mushrooms are coming up everywhere in the woods. This is one of the prettiest spring fungi – Scarlet Cup.

This is Black Urn Fungus.

With all the moisture the lichens are soft and brightly colored.

Fox Squirrel