It’s that time of year again. The weather has warmed up. Wildflowers are blooming. It’s time to go wildflower hiking.
Mostly I stay around home as I have many interesting places to check out. Once a week I hike the trails at ShawneeMac Conservation Area. In spite of doing much the same wildflower hiking for nearly thirty years, I still find new plants and take time to admire old friends.
Some Recent Hikes
One recent hike was to check out a patch of lady’s slippers. They bloom in May. This spring has had several frosts which slowed things down a little. The patch I checked will bloom in about a week.
The Canada geese are enjoying ShawneeMac Lakes. There are so many water loving plants along the lake edges. This hike is often done wearing boots so I can wade in a little for better pictures of the pond weed and water shield among others.
One of my old friends was missing on my wildflower hike along the river. I used to find Confederate violets back in the sandy floodplain. This year I found Virginia bluebells Robin’s plantain, but none of these violets. The river has changed its course this year wiping out some of the banks and gravel bars, creating a few new ones.
New Plans
Another change this year is in how many pictures I am taking. Last year I ended up with over 18 Gb of pictures. It takes hours and hours to work all of these up. Many of these flowers I’ve taken pictures of for years. This year I’m trying to not take so many of these concentrating on new ones or ones missing pictures or ones I’m not sure of my identification of.
Much as I enjoy going wildflower hiking, I have many other projects as well. Gardens, goats, chickens and others take up time too. And there is “Hopes, Dreams and Reality” to finalize and publish.