Another Flashback - A Walk in the Woods

While I'm waiting for the rain to end so I can get out and take more pictures, let me share another favourite walk.  Every morning at the old house the dog and I used to walk to the end of the cul-de-sac and head into the woods.  It was a beautiful, short and varied walk which we did in the winter (usually on snowshoes) as well as the summer.  This time I was looking for signs of green a lot.  These photos are from the last few days of April, so about now, but 8 years ago.

It's a nice easy trail into the woods, marked by two big Sugar Maples at the entrance of the old tractor trail.   Not much green showing yet and certainly no leaves in the canopy.

Once I got into the woods and started looking though, I found patches of green on the forest floor.  Some were the bright leaves of Wild Leeks, just glowing in the sun.

Others were the glowing leaves of Dogtooth Violets, a slightly different green, but soon to sport much nicer flowers than the Leeks.

The only leaves I saw were the just emerging reddish leaves of small Pin Cherry trees.

Once I started looking more closely though, I spotted other green on mossy rocks and logs.  Don't know the name of this moss, but you can clearly see the sporophytes standing up straight.

And this is a Broad-leaved Sedge, often mistakenly taken for a grass. 

 

The tiny flowers were in full bloom, very early in the spring.

The Wood Fern Leaves stay green all winter under the snow, and can still be found in the spring.

The promise of this year's fronds is in the still tightly curled fiddleheads that will unfurl soon.

American Beech saplings hold on to their dried crinkled brown leaves all winter, and you can hear them rustling in the breeze.  Apart from bird calls they are often the only sound in the woods in April.

The long pointed buds of those saplings remain tightly curled, waiting for a little more heat, just like me!

Roxie, our Grey County mutt, just loved these walks where she could follow her nose and explore the woods.  She often seemed to be just a nose on four legs.

Standing back for a wider view you can see the smaller bright green patch of wild Leek, the broader carpet of Dogtooth Violet leaves, and the moss on an old log.  This is my memory of the woods in late April.