Some summer days don’t have the puffy cumulus clouds to image critters in the clouds, but instead look more like kitty litter scattered on the floor or frost on a window.
Whether cumulus or cirrus clouds, I just to see some green instead of white snow.
Summer Wispy Clouds
Last week’s theme of spring wildflower didn’t help the winter to end, not when I’m looking out the window at falling and blowing snow. So instead of thinking spring, maybe I have to think of a warmer season like summer; a warm summer afternoon in the hammock instead of shoveling snow.
Lazy Summer Day
St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March 17, the saint’s religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over 1,000 years even though Saint Patrick was not Irish.
Originally, the color associated with Saint Patrick was blue, the color of the Order of St. Patrick. Over the years the color green and shamrocks in association with Saint Patrick’s Day grew. Legend has it that St. Patrick would use the shamrock to explain the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He would tie shamrocks to his robes, which is why the color green is worn.
Today, everyone is Irish and Irish tradition has it that if you do not wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, you get pinched !!
To honor Saint Patrick, today’s picture has the color blue for the Order of St. Patrick, green fields with white clover (included in the shamrock family), and you might even find some clouds that might look like a clover.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
“The wild marsh marigold shines like fire in the swamps and hollows gray…”, Tennyson from the May Queen 1860
Indeed, marsh marigold’s brilliant flowers are hard to overlook after a long winter and are a member of the Ranunculaceae family, named by Pliny the Elder (23-79 A.D.) for plants that grow where frogs are found. Ranunculus is Latin for “little frog”.
The flowers are showy because of their bright color and relatively large size. The foliage is an attractive bright green, showing color in the wetlands in early spring.
Marsh Marigold
One spring wildflower that stands taller than many of the early spring ones, are the Virginia bluebells as they wave their trumpet shaped flower above the forest floor. The pink buds turn to a deep blue color as the blossom ages and are a welcome sight to spot in the early spring even if they don’t last long.
Virginia Bluebells
Searching for color of the first wildflower after a long winter is always a thrill of spring. I have a few bulbs that will peek its blossom up through the snow, but the hepatica is first wildflower to appear in the woods. The blue, white or pink flowers wave their color above last year’s fallen oak leaves on hairy stems that help insulate them from the cool temperatures of early spring. The three lobed, heart shaped leaves appear after the flowers bloom.
Last year with the mild winter, the hepatica were already blooming in the middle of March but this year if they tried, they would be buried under several feet of snow and they would be snowed on today too. The flowers close on cloudy days and at night to protect their pollen when pollinators are not apt to be flying. However, the cold temperatures of early April mean that there are not many potential pollinators flying about anyway. Fortunately, hepatica has the ability to self-pollinate and produce seed without the aid of insects.
Hepatica nobilis
There are other spots of white in the spring after the snow finally melts. The white blossoms of the Bloodroot, wrapped in green leaves, add some of the first color in the spring time woods.
The blood of the root (when cut open) was used as a dye. A break in the surface of the plant, especially the roots, reveals a reddish sap.
Bloodroot
While the Spring Beauty isn’t the first spring wildflower to appear in the spring, it does have ‘spring’ in its name so it is a sign of spring. Although one of its other names is ‘fairy spud’ which doesn’t sound so spring like to me.
Spring Beauty
The white trillium might not be a flower showing pretty colors, but the white blossoms do stand out against the green and brown forest floor in the spring.
And they stand out too well for the deer. Trilliums are a favored food of white-tailed deer. Indeed if trilliums are available deer will seek these plants, with a preference for T. grandiflorum like the one pictured, to the exclusion of others. When deer foraging intensity increases, the plant becomes shorter each growing season due to the reduction in energy reserves from less photosynthetic production.
My poor trilliums where hit hard last year by the deer and it will be a miracle if any of them will blossom this year.
White Trillium
According to the ‘official groundhog’ prediction, spring was supposed to be early and come in four weeks. Well the four weeks are up and it is snowing this morning so my groundhog was right this time, not that I wanted him to right. And since I am waiting for spring, I think this week’s theme will be search for spring wildflowers.
And while the Jack-in-the-pulpit doesn’t have bright colors, it is at least green instead of white!
Jack-in-the-pulpit
