After feeding the animals and eating breakfast I drove to Glens Falls to meet my friend Jackie. We would walk in the woods and then have lunch at a Billiards Hall that serves Caribbean food.
A day off from work.
It’s been more than a year since we took our last walk together in the woods. This one had already been postponed from earlier in the month because of snow. But today was sunny with a bit of spring chill.
We drove together to Meadowbrook Preserve and chose a path along the brook. There were a few cars in the lot but we didn’t see another human the whole time we were there.
We walked in the woods, which were sunny since the trees are just starting to bud. The forest floor was green with wildflowers.
Jackie and I like to walk the woods in the same way. We aren’t silent, but even when we’re talking we are always looking to see what we can see.
Our conversation is constantly being interrupted.
Jackie spotted the first Trout Lily, then a carpet of them as far as we could see. We saw Dwarf Ginseng, just about to bloom, Bellwort’s, its pale yellow flower hanging straight down, a single yellow Violet, Yellow Hobblebush not yet blooming, False Hellebore growing along side the Skunk Cabbage, and more than one blooming Red Trillium.
We noticed a tree with the bark fallen off around it in long oval pieces. A woodpecker, a porcupine, an insect? We still don’t know what caused it.
When we got to the brook which is surrounded by marsh we saw a Great Blue Heron flying between the trees. Later we could see the movement of three or four birds but they were too high up for us to see clearly. Jackie recognized their song as the Norther Flicker.
We stopped on the wooden pier jutting out into the brook. Here the brooks bottom was deep and sandy, the clear water swirling in one big and many small eddies. “People swim here in the summer” Jackie said. It was inviting. we sat on our knees staring into to water long enough for a threesome of mallards to land up stream, take a bath, and fly off.
Just off the path we found an owl pellet and marveled at just how small the bones were.
And as the path looped back to the beginning, Jackie stopped and slowly walked into the woods. She held up her hand as if to warn me to be quiet. Then she reached her hand out to a big Red Trillium.
Only after we both got a good look at it did we laugh at how she was trying to be quiet so we didn’t scare the flower away.
But I knew exactly what she meant. Seeing the Red Trillium was the prize. As good as finding a Lady’s Slipper.
You are experiencing the woods like small kids would to and you are doing it with a friend that also knows how to move in the woods. Brilliant.
Ah, very nice put KJ
What a marvelous walk in the woods!
Spring wildflowers are wonderful, especially because they are easier to see when everything else isn’t out yet.
Yes, Sue it’s so true. They’re all out in the open. Everything gets so overgrown around here. That is one of the things I like about the desert. Everything is so visible.
Thank you both for this field trip. Am grounded for a whole host of reasons. Hobblebush is new to me, so nice to have to look it up. Will do some research to see if loud noises make red trillium flowers close up.
Ha! let me know what you find about the Trillium. I’d never seen the Hobblebush before either Sharon. Was glad to spot something new to me.
Isn’t spring grand? I love how you capture it in photos and words.
It really is Barb. I’m so glad you can see it in my posts.