Sun! We actually saw it today. And it was warm enough for the girls to play outside for a large part of the day. I grabbed my camera (ditched my phone! It’s always so distracting.) and joined them on a walk to discover what was blooming and to check out the bee activity.
There were tons of violets, which we collected for a salad. Flowers in your salad is always so fun, even if they don’t provide much flavor. We also forage ramp, which is growing now, but Bella declared that she can’t stand the smell.
We found plenty of may apples growing everywhere as well as happy remnants of last year’s paintball forts. You could almost hear the echoes of wild boys shouting across the ravines.
The peach tree closest to the house has started to bloom and I’m curious what the fruit will be like. The first year we were here, it produced no food at all. In fact, we didn’t even identify it as a peach tree. Last year, the peaches were small, mushy, and generally inedible. I don’t know enough about growing fruit to know what caused them to be gross. I guess we will just wait to see!
It’s always so nice to wander outside with the kids, watching the changes to the woods and trying to identify the plant life. We are slowly adding to our knowledge. Slowly!
Do you know what those funny little leaves in the picture under the bluebells are? We have them growing by our creek but have no idea what they are!
They’re called May Apples. My kids like to pick them as pretend they’re umbrellas! Interestingly, they produce an edible fruit, but it is hard to catch them at just the right ripeness. They hide under the drooping leaves and turn yellow when ripe.
Editing to add: Green May Apples are TOXIC, but the soft, yellow are supposedly quite tasty. I’d use extreme caution, though!
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