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.

Mayapples, Phlox, Bluebells and More....

Spring always happens so quickly that before I know it, I haven't posed the half of it!   This is just what I photographed on April 19:

 Large Flowered Trillium

The Large-Flowered Trillium was a little early, perhaps because this one was near the edge of our yard--not in the cove where most of them bloom on our land.

Mayapple

The Mayapple is one of my favorites and are just starting to bloom in the last day or two.  

 Wood Anemone

With Bloodroot and Toothwort finished, the Wood Anemone is a welcome sight.  The spring beauties also are still blooming, masses of them throughout the woods.

Redbud were in full bloom...

 Virginia Bluebells

After my walk in our woods, I decided to drive down to Walker Creek to enjoy the Bluebells. They seemed to be in full bloom.

I was disappointed to see so much trash on Rye Hollow Road along Walker Creek.  I wasn't able to clean it up during the community clean-up.  Back at the house, I emailed a friend and we were going to pick up the trash later during the week.

 This was how Walker Creek looked early on April 19.  Later in the afternoon, it started raining and raining.   I am not sure how much because I did not put my rain gauge out until 9 p.m.   On Monday morning, the gauge measured over an inch of rain.

 Walker Creek along Rye Hollow Rd.    April 20, 2015  2 p.m.

 By Monday afternoon, Walker Creek had flooded over Rye Hollow Road.  I was a little surprised but the ground was already saturated and creeks were running strong before this rainstorm.  

So, I went yesterday and saw that all the trash along the road was gone.  This is not good because the trash was picked up by the flood.  The trash then flowed into the New River and most of it, if not washed up on riverbanks, will end up in the Gulf of Mexico, all the way being a hazard for wildlife.    Next year, I will do my best to pick up the trash before the spring floods.

On Monday evening April 20, I attended a lecture by Jane Goodall at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia.   She made me realize that everyone can make a difference.  It does not have to be big but every little bit helps, like cleaning up a creek every year.