Four days into official spring (the equinox came and went while I was in Atlanta, where spring is much further along than it is here!), we have one nice, warm day before we go back to chilly for the next week.  The frogs are taking full advantage, singing their comb-plucking song loudly in the wetlands.  

Here are other things I noticed:

Forsythia is blooming:

The pussy willow catkins have greened up with pollen: 

The Siberian elms are flowering (I know, the photo is terrible.  They're high up; I'm short.)  This is the first step that will lead to me pulling tons of tiny elm seedlings from all over my yard later this year.  Yea.

Cornelian cherry dogwood flowers have bees buzzing all around them -- I managed to get one in a picture!

And, at some point recently, the "pine" tree (it's not a pine but all the kids call it one, I believe it's a spruce) at the old homestead nearby has fallen over.  This large tree marked the site of the front yard of an old farmhouse that was razed in the 70's.  The tree was a favorite of students, so it's sad to see it fallen!  RIP, spruce/pine tree.

Berry Bliss

There's a rainbow of berries out there:

Red-orange native honeysuckle.

Blue-green cedar.

White red osier dogwood.

Deep purple elderberry.

And crimson Cornelian cherry dogwood.  

I Know, I'm Behind...

OK, I've been remiss as a blogger and, to a lesser extent, as a phenologist.  I have all sorts of excuses, though they all boil down to one, really... I've been on school trips.  This means that a lot of the observations I've made haven't been here, but rather 2 hours north or 2 hours south.  It also means I'm extremely busy, and extremely tired.  So some data has been lost.  I know.  Irretrievable.  A day of laziness, data lost forever.  There's always next year. 

At any rate, I'm typing this on May 23, but I've dated the post 5/16, because I actually did take these pictures on that date.  Just didn't make it to step 2, uploading (or step 3, writing, or step 4, publishing...)  So here's just a taste of what was happening a week ago:

Columbine blooming.

Dogwood (red-osier) blooming.

Chokeberry blooming, and feeding a big fat bee. 

Honeysuckle blooming.  All over, because they're terribly invasive. 

Also important to note: we had our last freeze on 5/14, which was a very cold day.  I don't think it topped 40 as a high... there may have also been frost on 5/17.  There was where I was sleeping, and that was SOUTH of here, so it would make sense.  But I wasn't home to witness it.  

Weekend Updates

We came across this garter snake on the trail today... it was pretty chilly so it was moving very slowly (or not at all, until I got pretty close with my phone and it made as if to strike me).  That's my first snake sighting of the season!

I saw these scilla blooming yesterday, and the cornelian cherry dogwood -- which had fat yellow buds all week -- finally flowered on Friday!

photo by Lori B. 

Wild Edibles

Yesterday, I received a text message with a picture of these.  I assumed the question would be "what are they" and I knew the answer to that right away... Cornelian Cherry Dogwood.  They're not native, but are a lovely ornamental small tree, with very early yellow flowers and these bright red, olive-sized and -shaped fruits right now.  I did NOT know the answer to the second question -- are they edible?  Research ensued, and the answer turns out to be YES, they are... though they are a bit sour.  Still, they (supposedly) make a lovely jam or preserve.  As a canner with a sad inability to turn away from free local produce, I apparently have a new weekend project!

Elderberries starting to ripen

These American Hazels are edible by people (with some processing) but you have to beat the squirrels to them at just the right time.  Today I notices a lot of squirrel mess under the bushes... they're not the neatest eaters! 

Daily Discoveries

Rough blazing star is the last of the Liatris to bloom

Red Osier Dogwood has very striking berries at this time of the year.  

This fellow's short adult life is over, but you can hear his cicada brethren singing, their droning song accompanying the late summer heat.

Stiff goldenrod -- many people's choice for most desirable Solidago...

Yellow

Forsythia

Cornelian cherry dogwood

Daffodil (this variety is very early...)

Our Mammoth Trip

Our trip to Kentucky was all about flowers.  I mean, sure, there was the cave, which, being the longest in the world and home to unique species, is the natural wonder for which the National Park was created... but we all know I'm a plant person.  

The trees gave a spectacular show.  Even before we got to Kentucky it started.  In northern Indiana, the oak trees had dangling flowers that completed the green haze of spring.  Redbuds lined the highway, their brilliant purple coloring our whole drive.  As we got further south and the roadsides became more wooded and less farmed, the redbud understory intermingled with dogwoods, with their showy bracts and distinctive horizontal branching pattern... there's something about the southland in the springtime, and this?  Is it. 

My dogwood sketch.  I wrote, "Dogwoods decorate the forest.  From afar, each looks like a perfect ornament -- open towards the sky.  up close, each bloom is slightly asymmetrical, bracts twisted and misshapen and bruised."

Another dogwood sketch.

 Exploring the forests above the caves, we noticed distinctive burgundy flowers hanging like bells from many small trees.  We didn't know, at first, what they were... and neither did any of the rangers that we asked, and  we asked several.  (In their defense, I think Mammoth Caves hires their rangers based on geological knowledge, not botanical...)  Leaves weren't much help as they were just emerging, translucent and tiny ad the terminals of the twigs.  Turns out, these were pawpaw flowers!  Very lovely and unique.

My Pawpaw sketches and description.

We also saw a number of ground-dwelling wildflowers, including but probably not limited to:
bellwort, bluebells, celandine poppies, chickweed, Dutchman's breeches, fire-pink, foamflower, forget-me-nots, ginger, irises, jack-in-the-pulpit, larkspur, Mayapples (not blooming yet), phlox, pussytoes, ragwort, rue anenomes, trillium (multiple species), twinleaf (not blooming), violets, wild geranium, something I didn't know maybe a snakeroot...