weekend shots: spring walks

This past weekend Katie Bug and I decided it would be a good idea to check out the woods.  It's funny that the winter/spring that we didn't have a dog I don't really remember going for walks in the woods much.  Something about having a pal along.  And that Kate... once she knows that I have stopped for a minute, my attention elsewhere, she jets through the woods running around, up and down the hills and splashing in the creek.  Saturday we walked down below the waterfall where the bigger creek meets our branch, where the water gets deeper (no more than a couple of feet but over my boots), and once Bug realized she had permission she was all in.  I walked around the bottoms below Chipmunk Bluff (I have names for areas of our land) and Kate swam, each not really paying each other much attention but having a great time by ourselves with the security that we were both nearby. 

Over the two walks, I wound up spying three wildflowers blooming that I've never seen before.  I took pictures and have a Tennessee wildflower book on it's way from the library to hopefully identify them.   I also found a pretty old Mason jar with a very rusty lid and a piece of an arrowhead... oddly within a foot or so of a spot where I've found one before.  No mushrooms to report in my findings.  Maybe next year.  Please enjoy these shots from our walks.

I love the ferns lining the creeks.

This one reminds me of Pepper Jean.  She always walked in the creek with such purpose.

Firepinks.

Don't know this one.

Firepinks.

Of all the walking I do in our woods this is the first snake I've seen this year.  I'm sure it's not the first snake that has seen me.  I almost stepped on this little guy in the creek.  He wasn't but maybe a foot long... maybe.  When I am in "their home" I feel I have no right to kill them.. unless maybe I am being threatened I guess.  Now if they are in my home... or chicken pen... or shop... or day care... different story.  I've not seen one like this before.  Maybe I ought to check out that snake book from the library again.

Tater Bug at our waterfall.

I think this is almost my favorite picture from this trip.  Just something about it.

Mom... something is telling me to ask you what this is.   Seems more like a misplaced shrub that's grown tall under the trees than just something wild.  I could be very wrong.

Remember this nest I found a few months ago?  Don't know if it's builders will use it again this year or not.  Doesn't appear that way for now.  It's pretty well built to last through this past winter.

Weekend Adventures

I wanted to share some pictures from the woods that I took this weekend.  I spent around eight hours this weekend in the woods (honestly more)  searching for morels, violets and fiddleheads.  Two of those were easier to come by than one but I am happy with what I did find.  I looked and gathered and wound up with two mushrooms, two cups of violets and one cup of fiddleheads.  We cooked supper over our camp fire Saturday night and that is also when I cooked the fiddleheads which were pretty divine along with the one mushroom that was fit for eating.  The violets became jars of jelly that I am afraid aren't going to set today... we'll see.

Mushroom hunting is fun but can be a tad exhausting.  They are hard to spot, especially when you've not found many where you are looking.  They don't grow in particular spots.  Oh you might think you know what they grow around or what trees they may grow under, so you spot these things and hike up the hills and through the creek only to find they aren't there.  So I wonder if my hunches are true.  But I try to mentally note what the area is made up of when I do find one.  Although I am tired and my body is aching from roaming up and down and all around about 15 acres or more I'm not giving up.  They are here somewhere.  I will try again maybe tomorrow evening and for sure next weekend.

Morel Mushroom

 

Fiddlehead

Violets

Bellwort

This is the first time I have ever seen the Bellworts.  Things flower and then finish flowering so fast in the woods that if you turn around twice you'll miss something.  Last weekend I didn't have my camera when the Trout Lillies were blooming and this weekend they were pretty much done.  I love knowing where all these flowers are in patches of our woods and adore the fact that I can take the time and care enough to venture out to see it all.