Spring Ephemerals

Bloodroot and Trout Lily

Warm rain and everything is starting to burst forth.  I braved the damp mist and took a walk today, eager to get out of the house, stir crazy from organizing my tax documents. The may apples were unfurling their umbrellas. Dainty spring beauties, trout lilies and hepatica dotted the edges of the path along the creek.  The mosses and lichen seemed electric in the gray wetness of the day.  Shining out chartreuse and grey green, I kept expecting to spy a leprechaun peeking out from behind a tree trunk.

There are masses of spotted salamander eggs in the vernal pools.  They must have crawled out of their underground hiding places in the first warm rains a month or so ago.  I've been watching them develop, picking up blobs of the jelly-like clusters to take a closer peek.  I think I might put some in a container to take and show to the kids in my programs, maybe keep a few to watch them hatch, then return them to their birth pools to carry on.

Here's what they look like when they are all grown up. So ready for spring and all the unfolding.

Salamander eggs in cold puddles

Another busy week and therefore a dry spell on the blog.  Between working at my two jobs and taking on volunteering at 2 more, it seems that time got away from me this week.  Add to that the excruciating pain physically and financially of getting an emergency root canal Monday afternoon and well, I guess you could say I've got an excuse for being a bit off my game!

The cold weather has continued unabated as well and left me a bit ornery, I'm ready to spend more time outside and its just not been very welcoming.  But I do want to follow up on an earlier promise, to share another of my favorite winter scenes from the garden.

This is our weeping redbud; Traveller.  I've shared photos of it here in spring and summer but one of my favorite times is winter when the little moss patch that David planted beneath it glows in the sun and the sinuous shape of the trunk is most striking.  In another month or so the branches will be covered with tiny pink flowers at each leaf node.

I spotted amphibian eggs last week in the puddle of a hole left beneath a fallen tree, I think they are from the spotted salamander.  You have to look through the reflection of the trees and sky and then you might be able to make out the two fist-sized milky white sacs beneath the surface, each containing dozens of eggs. 

David planted peas yesterday.  It's supposed to get up into the 50's this weekend so I intend to plant carrots, spinach and radishes.  Fifteen dozen onion plants are due to arrive next week so I better get the ground ready for them too.

Bring on a warm sunny day, please.