Last Saturday was the second session of this Master Naturalist class that I'm taking (I realize I may sound like a professional student--wasn't there a Charles Baxter story about someone like that--studied Folke Greville, his girlfriend dumped him and he was in a car accident? but I'm not, I DO teach, ya know). Well, I attempt to, anyway. Digress, I do.
I was falling asleep during the lecture, more from physical fatigue that boredom (there was a bit of that--SLIDES! actual slides on a manual projector!) Finally, we were walking through the woods to see what we could see.
Our guide, a Ms. Dockeray, an octogenarian who had the energy of a pentagenarian, would loudly--and I do mean LOUDLY--"Ooooh!" everytime she spotted something she found interesting.
Here are a few specimens that we saw at the Blandford Nature Center outside of Grand Rapids: First up, trout lily, a species I only discovered for myself last year.
I believe this is bloodroot. So named for the blood-colored liquid found in the roots.
Spring beauties:
The ever popular cut-leaved toothwort:
Twin leaf, with no leaves visible, oddly enough.
I did finally see Dutchman's breeches, too, both the "girl" and "boy" varieties, but my photos were too blurry.
Lastly, in the spirit of Monty Python--Where's the snake?
This has to have been the first time I've been in the woods this early in the spring to catch all the ephemerals. Time is so easily misspent and missing this beauty is not worth TV or some other time waster I fill my life with.
I was falling asleep during the lecture, more from physical fatigue that boredom (there was a bit of that--SLIDES! actual slides on a manual projector!) Finally, we were walking through the woods to see what we could see.
Our guide, a Ms. Dockeray, an octogenarian who had the energy of a pentagenarian, would loudly--and I do mean LOUDLY--"Ooooh!" everytime she spotted something she found interesting.
Here are a few specimens that we saw at the Blandford Nature Center outside of Grand Rapids: First up, trout lily, a species I only discovered for myself last year.
I believe this is bloodroot. So named for the blood-colored liquid found in the roots.
Spring beauties:
The ever popular cut-leaved toothwort:
Twin leaf, with no leaves visible, oddly enough.
I did finally see Dutchman's breeches, too, both the "girl" and "boy" varieties, but my photos were too blurry.
Lastly, in the spirit of Monty Python--Where's the snake?
This has to have been the first time I've been in the woods this early in the spring to catch all the ephemerals. Time is so easily misspent and missing this beauty is not worth TV or some other time waster I fill my life with.
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