I Am Not Hamlet

Spring ephemerals began their yearly appearance during Holy Week. The lock-down had afforded me the opportunity to reacquaint myself with some species that I hadn't seen in several years. I allowed my time for wildflower viewing to be restricted to the weekends for far too many years. Time is gift so easily squandered, isn't it? The following photos were captured at Maybury State Park in Wayne County and Oakland County, MI (which incidentally contains the highest point in the Rouge River watershed). Pre-blooming trillium (probably Trillium grandiflorum ) Early stage of May-apple ( Podophyllum peltatum ) Blooming bloodroot ( Sanguinaria canadensis ) Cutleaf toothwort ( Cardamine concatenata )   More bloodroot ( Sanguinaria canadensis ) Hard to tell, but I think this is a wood frog. I haven't ID'd this one yet. Bueller?...Bueller? Anyone? Mourning cloak ( Nymphalis antiopa )

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 bl...