Gettin' By the Best I Can
One huge bonus in woodland life is the abundance of wildflowers in the spring, and they vary until late fall. Enjoy the pictures!
BTW, the whole saying the title came from is:
Spring has sprung
the grass has riz
I wonder where
the flowers iz?
I love the cabin at Spring, all the birds coming back filling the air with song. The flowers begin blooming and the trees leaf out and get fat buds. Rain, rain, then rain, rain, rain; at least I have no trouble keeping water in the well! I adore seeing the new constellations rolling across the sky at the deep darkness seen way out in the woodland – the Milky Way is delightful! If you must be at home, enjoy the Spring around you, even if it is only a pair of cardinals flitting by.
BTW, I’ve been getting more book orders at Old Lady Who? If any of you folks have ordered, thanks so much! Whoever sends an order I always break out into a great grin and leap up to fill the order! To me, reading a book stomps all over loneliness as you get transported elsewhere, at least for a while.
Good health and happiness to all of you, your families and your loved ones! Hey! Hey! May Day!
I thought I’d post a few timely pictures to show I’m still alive and kicking! Fall is my favorite time of the year; the weather starts cooling and I can cozy up to thick, soft clothes. Who doesn’t enjoy the vibrant colors of a majestic hardwood forest? And fortunate me – I live in the midst of a beautiful one. See the flocks of silhouetted birds headed for the beaches, see some of the squirrels hoarding nuts while other sneak up and steal them, see the evening sun arrive sooner and sooner.
Write down what size furnace filters you need and get a pack now because you’ll be too busy with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas to think of them later. And a note to self, make up some of that superlatively soft fleece and faux fur you got on sale last spring…you have the patterns, now find the time!
My sci-fi eBook The Might of Defiance is FREE for the next couple days! If you wanted to be kind and review it, now would be a good time to get your Kindle copy. Remember, you can get a Kindle reader download for whatever device you’re using, if not a Kindle.
Honeysuckles!
Walking around the woods, the honeysuckles are about over now. They have beautiful flowers and strangling vines; woe unto the bush they get near. Another rampant Asian import! Of course this one is pretty, as are many of the others. As choke-worthy as they are, few folks have them in their yards by choice. As I have many acres of dense woodland as my front yard, I let ’em rip.
I remember as a wee child dodging the honeybees servicing the honeysuckles on the narrow woodsy footpath we used to taken to the Winn-Dixie. The massive display of flowers and the heady scent made Ma hurry (hay fever) and made me linger. I never worried abut honeybees becauseI mowed the grass with a gas push mower since the time I could reach the 
handle, and I always went barefoot unless in school or church. I counted 17 bees stepped on one summer. My feet didn’t stay swollen for long at a time, not enough to impede my rambling in any case. I digress.
I don’t recall where I heard about it from, but it was probably a book – go figure. I recently checked the Audubon Guide to Eastern Wildflowers and that authority actually mentioned it. Just pluck a flower and pinch off the green trumpet tip. Suck the honey out! I reckon that’s how they got their name. The process was a novelty for me, as the amount of honey in one of those is miniscule. Still, how many jillion folks go right by these vines every 
durned day and never dream of tasting them?
Walking around the woods, I keep an eye out for the newest wildflower blooms, snakes, and for something unusual. Saturday was a beauteous day, sunny without excess heat and thankfully rainless.
The ever-present fleabane is very pretty in the white and pink forms. I love the idea of them being flea banes, but have only found them to harbor ticks and mites.
There are many blackberry brambles around here, and never are they as obvious as when they are blooming. Wondrous cascades of white! Watch out for the fine thorns…
These fill entire fields, making pre-plowed farms have seas of bold yellow. Individually, they’re not much. An acre thick with them is spectacular.
Oh, let’s not forget the flying flowers!
Then there he stood, frozen in place by the mere sight of me. I came closer, coy, not wishing to spook him. He may have been around since Day 1; I had not noted one before. Meet the Red Spotted Newt!Handsome little fellow, isn’t he?
Newly leafing May Apples, and I sure have lots of them. Part of my land is a Kentucky – designated wetland. That’s the perfect 
environment for the well-storied May Apple.
Other names: Umbrella Plant, Duck Foot, American Mandrake, Wild Jalap, Racoon Berry, Hog Apple and Indian Apple.
Lest the “American Mandrake” scare you, like, don’t eat the plant or unripe fruit. The May Apple is not a real mandrake, but chowing down a plant might well do you in.
As a relevant aside, the real mandrake is a member of the Solanacae family (as is the Deadly Nightshade!). People used to think tomatoes (from that family) were poisonous. Potatoes are from that family too, don’t eat the green skin or the sprouts – same for eggplants. Tobacco to peppers to petunias, it’s a big family! I mention these simply as an example of how you can eat poisonous plants and fruit if you know what you’re doing.
So, like eating the correct part of the potato, eat only the fully ripe, yellow fruit. That is if you can beat the squirrels to it some time from late May through July. This website has pretty good information on it:
Eat the Weeds can be found at http://www.eattheweeds.com/podophyllum-peltatum-forgotten-fruit-2/
Walking through the woods is wonderful and Spring is a magical time to take it all in. From the tree-borne constellations of Redbud blossoms to the tiny, precious wildflowers, I love it!
How Would You Do It? 