Spring is a Comfort!

Like everyone else, I am hunkered down at home per governor's orders. I get out perhaps once a week to pick up groceries and to hunt for the elusive toilet paper package.  I am thankful though I live in a beautiful part of Virginia. Most of the hiking trails have closed around here but our old logging roads and pastures provide plenty of hiking in nature.  Also, I am thankful this lock down happened in spring, my favorite time of year.  It's as if spring decided we are having such a difficult time that she decided to be especially beautiful this year or perhaps I am just noticing this season's beautiful.

March 27 Appalachian or Tiger Swallowtail

This butterfly was smaller than the swallowtails I see in April. I tried to identify but needed to see more of it and the back side to see if it was one of the Appalachians.

March 27 Cut-Leaf Toothwort 

March 27 Falcate Orangetip Butterfly on periwinkle flower

The butterfly is the male because it has the orange tip. The female Falcate Orangetip butterfly lacks the orange so many people mistake it for the cabbage white which comes along later and is a larger butterfly.   

April 3 View of neighbor's barn and Walker Mountain from top of our big pasture. 

April 3 Red Maple

The red maple trees have already gone to seed so that is not what is bothering my allergies. I have been wearing an allergy mask I bought in January when I go out. A cough or sneeze can get you dirty looks in the age of COVID-19.

April 3 Pear Tree

I haven't seen the pear tree in bloom for years. This tree is a part of an old orchard on the back part of our land. Years ago, our land and most of our neighbors' land was part of a huge farm.I talked to a man who remembers going to this farm when he was a boy because his grandmother lived in an old house on our neighbor's house. The house is gone but daffodils and irises indicate its location on my neighbor's land. He said our land where our house is was a potato patch. That was before the land grew up in forest as many of the trees are 60 years or older around our house.

April 3 Virginia Pine

This Virginia Pine tree had thousands of pine cones. The last time I saw that on big Virginia Pine, the tree died the following year. But lots of saplings grew in later years. But this one is at the fence line of the big pasture so I doubt the little trees will be able to grow. 

April 3 Spring Beauties with purple Wood Violets

Spring Beauties are carpeting the woods and the wood violets are especially pretty this year.  The spring beauty plants each grow from a small bulb. I guess if I were starving I would dig some up.

 April 4 Virginia Bluebells 

 April 4 Waterfall

This waterfall is from a spring that follows the road and then pours into Walker Creek. The blue bells are on both sides. 

April 4 Walker Creek

April 4 Redbuds

Everyone is talking about how beautiful the redbud blossoms are this year. These were along Walker Creek.

Nature is Fun: Lichens, Mosses, and Ferns

Last week, a fellow Virginia Master Naturalist and I held an after-school program on nature at Pearisburg Public Library.  Our emphasis for this November 29 workshop was on what you can find that is green or blooming in the woods in the winter.  The children attending ranged in age from 6-12.

 We had collected lichens, mosses, Virginia Pine, Witch Hazel flowers, and Christmas Fern.  When I talked about lichens, I asked the kids to pick out the different types on one small log.  I used a handout on lichens and Christmas Fern which I made for the program:

 Lichens 

“A lichen, or lichenized fungus, is actually two organisms functioning as a single, stable unit. Lichens comprise a fungus living in a symbiotic relationship with an alga or cyanobacterium (or both in some instances). There are about 17,000 species of lichen worldwide.”  (https://www.livescience.com/55008-lichens.html)

There are several types of lichens:  leafy, cup-like, beard-like, and crusty (usually on rocks).  In general, you want to leave the lichens.  Lichens absorb pollutants so scientists can learn about air pollution by analyzing lichens. 

Christmas Fern

Polystichum acrostichoides

The Christmas Fern stays green all winter, unlike other ferns.   Winter snows will flatten the fronds though.  Fiddleheads or the coiled fronds appear in early spring while the rest of the previous year’s growth browns and decays.

The blade of the fern is lance-shaped with pinnae (look like leaves) all along.  On fertile pinnae, sori (brown areas on underside) are on the upper part of the blade.  These release microscopic spores into the air which is how a fern reproduces.  

Christmas Ferns grow in the woods and are widespread because they tolerate both dry and wet soils.  The range of the Christmas Fern is the eastern United States, from the south all the way to Canada and west to Missouri.  Because it is bright green in December, the Christmas Fern historically has been used in holiday decorations. 

The children glued leaves to color paper.  Then, they all did colored pencil drawings which I don't have any photos of unfortunately.  All of the children seem to have good drawing skills for their ages.

After I arrived home, I put the Christmas Fern and Virginia Pine in a vase.  The ferns only lasted a couple of days while the pine is going strong.

We plan to continue the programs next year in January since there does seem to be interest for them.