Little Signs of Spring

 A big sign of spring is trail work. Of course northern Michigan is going to have to do trail work in spades after all their ice. We have a lot of trees down on our 80-mile section, but nothing like north of us. The people who are chain saw certified will get those soon.

One thing we do have is a short section that is being selectively logged. And the trail blazes were pretty faded. I went out today and re-blazed that section so hopefully no one will get confused and follow either a skid track or the logging marks. Big diagonal slashes are logging marks. New rectangle blaze is for the trail.

The buds on the silver maple trees are getting big.They are so distinctive because they are very spherical.

I forgot to show you that Cathy and I scared up a couple of sandhill cranes last week. You can see two of them flying away between the trees.

And I stopped at Lowe's because they were saying their garden center is open. They don't have much in stock yet, but I confess that I've started looking at plants for the season.

Mini health update on the neuralgia abatement. I'm down to 2 ibuprofen a day. The sore spot and itching are still an issue, but getting less.

Editing, other computer stuff and stuff accomplished.

Not much walking even with the trail work because the blaze painting takes a lot of time, but I got in 1.5 miles

Miles hiked in 2025: 105.5 Hike 100 Challenge: 40

See Hunting for Spring

Riots of Spring

 One of the things the Philadelphia Flower Show does for everyone is bring an early springtime into the lives of us in the north who are tired of brown and gray and dirty white. These are all from various commercial displays. I'll only ID the plants themselves, although I don't know most of the varieties. Some exibitors label things better than others.

Tulips always say "spring."

Crown Imperial is a large frittelaria. I've tried to grow them a couple of times, but without success. They require excellent drainage.

This was a large swathe of pink hyacinth, giant grape hyacinth and wallflower. Stunning colors.

There was a ridiculous exhibit I'll show you more of later where AI imagined landscapes. They proposed that this was prairie. There's not a prairie plant in the bunch, but it's very colorful with pansies and purple tulips.

This is another sort of pansy, Viola x wittrockiana 'Delta Clear White,' with a weeping flowering tree.

And we'll come back to another display of tulips.

Imagine my surprise to discover that my rock garden had an offering to spring today. One lone crocus! I think there will be more later. I did move some bulbs around last fall.

I worked in the morning, and then Om and I went to see Rule Breakers, the movie about the true story of the Afghanastan girls' robotics team. It was actually better than we expected.

I walked to the theater, 4 miles. I was planning to let Om pick me up when he passed me, but I did all four miles in an hour and ten minutes, so my pace is certainly acceptable.

Miles hiked in 2025: 54.4

See Three New Heucheras

Flowering Trees

 Gosh! I love these days of the full blossoms on the trees.

Here's the crab apple.

And the cherry. Usually all I get is blossoms and no fruit that survives the birds, but who knows?

I totally missed getting a picture of the pear trees. Yesterday they looked nice. Today they are all done!

But my favorite is the apple anyway.

Even though I'm not fond of pink, I love how the buds start out bright pink, but then when they open, they are white.

And, there have been several of these gorgeous spring days. Here's another mood of my backyard. Even though my kingdom has been getting squeezed, I still have this view.

I want you to know that I worked my little tail off today. Tomorrow you'll get to see the accomplishments. But I wrote a column in the morning, did laundry, worked on the house, but got only 78 miles of campsites done. I might get a few more done yet, but I'm kinda beat, and the next 100 miles are going to be a lot of work.

See Just Wow! See Fruity? See all the moods of my backyard

Just Wow!

  Never in my wildest dreams did I think the rock garden would look so good in this first year after the recovery effort. The color doesn't show up as much in the picture as it does in real life. Or maybe I took the photo too late in the afternoon.

Anyway, here are some more goodies. The bronze ajuga is blooming, joining the various colors of moss phlox. It's very happy, and it spreads easily. I'm going to move some farther out from the wall this year and see if it will tolerate the sunnier place out there because the foliage is nice all season.

Here's the moneywort, Lysimachia nummularia again. I can't believe how happy it is since it's never done anything before except be scraggly and barely survive. Near this patch, it's found a place to hide itself in a crack between two rocks and that looks especially nice. I hope it does more of that. You can just barely see a sedum friend beside it. That is also a sedum that I didn't think was going to survive. I bought it last year, and it was not very happy. But I guess it just needed to get better established. Soon, I'll do a sedum picture day, but I want some of them to get a little bigger first.

And I have two more daffodils for you, but I think these will be the last different species for this year. The first are some tiny Tete-a-tete in the rock garden. Another one I did not know was still alive.

Now, we'll move out of the rock garden. I should have pictured these yesterday before the rain. But I still have some Pheasant-Eye Narcissus. These came from my childhood home.

The 'Stewartsonian' Azalea was a bit stressed from being transplanted when it was in serious bud, so some of the buds just withered. But enough of them opened that you can see its color. This is now planted near the forsythia and the Flowering Quince (that doesn't often flower, but the bush is looking the healthiest it ever has, so there's hope). I like it. I used to have a sand cherry there, but it died.

But this is the real stunner. I had no idea these would look so great together in the spring. This is the 'Frostbite' Brunnera and the 'Peach Flambe' Heuchera. I'm pretty sure the 'Jack Frost' Brunnera has died. But I'm seriously liking the Brunnera that the deer won't eat. Their real beauty is later when the leaves get big and are colored. These ones will be mostly white. I'll probably get another.

Much was accomplished today. I only have 86 miles of campsites done, but I'm pretty sure I'll get to 100 yet this evening. And huge progress happened on other fronts. Stay tuned.

See Much Nicer Than Expected

Much Nicer than Expected - 2024 Rock Garden Report 2

  I never expected the rock garden to look so good the first year after cleaning it up. A lot of plants that I thought were dead and gone have showed up. Here is the view from the deck, just for comparison with last fall. You can see that it looks fairly full, and not much of that is weeds. I think by next week, I'll be able to start carefully cleaning again.

I showed you these daffodils two weeks ago. They are still looking really nice. Pretty sure they are Narcissus Canaliculatus, although 'Minnow' is still in the running. They seem to be getting a little tall for the rock garden, but they are OK in the space they are in. Since the flowers are smallish, that works well.

Here's a daffodil I had no idea was still alive. I had purchased bulbs for a lot of miniature ones. A number of them seem to be truly gone. This is N. pumilla, 'Rip Van Winkle.'

I wasn't sure this sedum was going to make it. It never looked happy at all last year. But look at it now! This is Sedum pluricaule, 'Ewaze." I like the color, and I think it stays rather blue-ish all season.

Here's a little plant that just refuses to die, although it never is happy. My hill is really way too dry for it. This is Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea.' Hey, I'll take any tiny bit of colored foliage. I don't think it's ever bloomed. I just leave any little bits I find instead of digging them up. It has a grape hyacinth friend.

Now, for two carefully staged photos, but no photoshopping! These views look like what I want the garden to look like all the time. This one is a section of violets and light magenta moss phlox (it used to be candystripe phlox, but it reverted to this color and white).

This is the very best! Would you look at that Pasqueflower still going gangbusters after a full month since it first bloomed! Filling in spaces is magenta and white moss phlox. There are some sempervivum and sedum starting to get bigger in between, and a few violets. The best of all is the white grape hyacinth in the middle. There are some scattered blue ones popping up all over. But the white ones were a gift from my mom a long time ago. I had no idea there were any still viable, and sometimes the oddball varieties don't last as well as the old standards. And, it's not just a couple of stalks, but a whole clump! This is what a spring rock garden should look like.

Mostly I worked on the book. 100 miles of campsites, some formatting and fixing things. Also edited for 30 minutes for someone else. I might be able to beat myself into a little more yet this evening.

See 2024 Rock Garden Report 1

Back to Crystal Valley

 I went back out to Crystal Valley today, but still didn't hike every piece of every loop. I did walk 8.3 miles though.

It's still not really spring in the woods. Found more hilly trails. This is a really good area to get a workout around here. From the parking lot to the high point is about 300 feet difference, but the trails go up and down a lot. I definitely climbed and descended more than 300 feet. My tracker said my net elevation gain was 2.67 feet. Right. All that means is that I went in a loop which is good. Returning to the car is good.

I took several pictures that didn't come out at all. I took a picture of Sweetfern in bloom. Not in focus. It smells even more spicy than the leaves.

There was sun, so I was able to get a nice shadow of some emerging leaves on a rock.

The Shadbush is trying to show off. That's one of the very earliest blooms in the woods.

I was hoping for some wildflowers, but it's a very dry woods, so I didn't have big expectations. All I found was one small clump of common violets at the edge of a clearing.

A tattered Red Admiral butterfly was hanging around while I ate my lunch. I did also see a dragonfly.

It's really interesting that where the trees are getting sunlight they are starting to pop! This was a fencerow on the way home. I love this time of year.

Since I had to repeat some sections of some loops to get to "new" trail, I did stop at the chestnut balls and look around more carefully for the tree. Hmmm. I did not find anything that has the right bark. That said, I think chestnut bark can be rather variable, but I'm still mystified. I found more of the balls uphill in the woods, so I think my idea that they rolled downhill into the trail is true. And I found one ball that was broken open about a quarter mile from the others. I suspect a squirrel.

I've been trying to meet my 100 miles of campsites quota since I got home. I'm about at 40 miles. Will I make it before I give up for the day?

Total miles hiked in 2024: 208.9 of which 70.6 is North Country Trail.

Crystal Valley Ski loops, Oceana County, MI. Various loops, 8.3 miles

See Crystal Valley Outer Loop

Shadows of Spring

 I loved the sky and shadows across the back yard this morning.

The rest of my daffodils are coming into their own. You've seen them all before, but not this year. These are the lovely bi-colored ones, Narcissus Delnashaugh.

This one always makes me smile because these bulbs came from my family farm in NY. The old-fashioned double daffs were a favorite of my Grandma Leary.

Going back to another two-colored one, this is 'Duke of Windsor,' one of my personal favorites. It spreads very slowly, so I don't get big clumps of it like I do some of the others, but it manages to keep hanging on.

I think this variety is looking the best it ever has. This is 'Pistachio,' which is supposed to be yellow-green. It never is, but this may be the closest it's come. The wind knocked a few of these over, so we now have a little bouquet of them in the house, too.

I wouldn't mind a couple other varieties, but no plans to do anything about it at the moment.

I went to the food bank in the morning, and then worked all day on listing campsites for the book.

See A Riot of Daffs

Hymn of Promise

 We will be playing "Hymn of Promise" in bell choir on Sunday. It's great in midwinter or spring.

In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree;
In cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

The red maples are showing off their springtime red flowers. These are one of my favorite spring trees.

The church planter is looking nice with daffodils and hyacinths

I am a little sorry to tell you about this last tree, although it's about to burst in blossom. And it has at least 10 friends. I'm pretty sure these are Bradford Pear, Pyrus calleryana. They were brought to the US in the 1960s as an ornamental tree, but they out-compete a lot of native trees and revert to a brittle, thorny tree that naturalizes in woodlands. They are considered a real no-no farther south, and are now banned in a number of states. Maybe I can confirm this on Sunday. The flowers should have an unpleasant odor if it's this pear.

Even though it was nice out, I worked hard on editing and writing. I have so much to do, and Saturday and Sunday I did nothing on these projects.

I guess if there's an upside to the writing, I have finally figured out a format for the campsite list that seems to work with all the options, and I can organize it in a spreadsheet to double check the mileages. I feel as if this is going a little faster now, which would be really good.

See A Riot of Daffs