This was the week my craft group came to visit – unfortunately it turned rainy and cold the day they came. We got nearly an inch and a half of rain in those two days. We took several damp walks, made a great Indian dinner, and had a good time in spite of the weather.

A few days later it finally stopped raining enough that Mike and I could go outside to do a chain saw project. We spent a morning clearing trees that had fallen over the winter. There are always trees that fall across our walking paths, and now there are Aspens that are dying from the girdling I did last spring and falling in the woods. Here’s Mike working on a tangle of trees.

Most of the fallen trees were in the thick aspen woods between Hidden Oaks Meadow and Hidden Oaks point. As we were working in the woods and at the edge of the meadow I could see prairie plants coming up where they’re starting to get a little more sun. Here’s some Violet Wood-Sorrel (Oxalis violacea) blooming at the edge of the woods.

I found a nest of tiny spiders tucked down at the base of a plant stem – I think the spiders must have just hatched. Each one was about 2mm long and the whole nest was only a couple inches across. When I bumped it, all the spiders started scurrying around on their little web lines.

Spider nest

Spiders

The only other dry walk I had was up the hill behind the house. It’s a south-facing hill with some big oaks, and prairie plants along the cliff at the bottom just above the house. The woods are overgrown with some Aspens, but mostly White Birch, Prickly Ash, and Honeysuckle. At the top of the hill is Indian Grass Prairie – one of our steep prairie remnants. On my walk up through the woods I realized how many prairie plants are growing under the trees. I think we’ll have to make a project of clearing out that woods so the prairie plants have a chance. The path up the hill is lined with Wood Betony and Interrupted ferns.

Interrupted Ferns (Osmunda claytoniana)

I also found Yellow Star-grass (Hypoxis hirsuta)

Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum)

And Low Bindweed (Calystegia spithamaea) – not blooming.

Here’s a mysterious plant that was growing in the woods – I don’t have any idea what it is. I’m hoping it will bloom sometime so I can identify it.

And here’s a Cranefly hiding from the rain.

The prairie areas around the house are thriving – I planted them about 3 years ago, and I’ve been adding seeds from some of the special dry prairie plants that I find. Now some of them are starting to bloom.

Downy Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja sessiliflora)

Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis)

Wood Betony (Pedicularis canadensis)

Cream Wild Indigo (Baptisia bracteata)

Sand Cress (Arabis lyrata) – this thrives in the places where there’s just a thin layer of sand over the rock.

We’ve been seeing a pair of Northern Harriers hunting in our wetland – I hope they’ve made a nest close by. We watched the male simultaneously chasing some Mallards and being chased by a couple Red-winged Blackbirds.