Back in the Valley

It's hard to believe that we've been back from out west for 3 weeks.  (And I kept you busy with 3 weeks worth of western pictures on the blog!)  Real spring has been very late here, but with yesterday and today actually being warm, even hot, the season will catch up fast.

The beautiful light yellow-greens of the Sugar Maples (you're actually looking at their flowers more than their leaves here), give us two or three weeks of spring colour in the valley.

The hard maples coat all the upper and steeper slopes of the valley where the native deciduous forest has never been cleared.  The dark green of Eastern White Cedar colours the very steep slopes.

Down the slope from those mature Sugar Maple forests are extensive patches of young White Ash.  These are old fields that were cleared, pastured, abandoned, and are now growing up fast in trees.  But ash leaves are about the latest to unfold in the spring, so those patches all just look grey in these photos.

These are young White Ash in our own yard, not an unfolding leaf to be seen.  The buds are barely opening.

Elsewhere as I drive around the valley I spot the white blooms of Pin Cherry and Serviceberry trees.  They stand out brightly against everything else for two or three weeks.

Right here in the yard, the Silver Maple leaves are growing fast,

but the Sugar Maple buds are just starting to unfold.

The Basswood leaves are still tiny, half an inch across.

The White Birch leaves are not much bigger, and the catkins still hanging on the tree.  Based on my own observations, this is the latest that tree leaves have emerged here that I can remember.

A few flowers starting to brighten up the garden, the yellow Primrose which spread so easily, and the deep red buds of the Fernleaf Peony, about to open up.  Lots more to show you over the next few days.