Flowers in the Woods

Miki came along to the woods last night, to check out all the early spring wildflowers. 
One of my favourite early spring woodlands wildflowers is the yellow trout lily. 
Miki loves them too, and picked a small bouquet....

Right now the trees are all still bare, allowing the light in to the forest floor, where
 if you look closely, there's all kinds of  plants and wildflowers popping up through the 
fallen leaves. There's the delicate hepatica which is almost finished, while bloodroot 
and trout lilies are in full bloom, and the trillium buds are just starting to open. 

Hepatica

Trout Lily

Trillium

Bloodroot

 One of my earliest childhood memories is of the lovely yellow trout lilies.

We had just immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands to a large dairy farm on Manitoulin Island, a large island up north in Lake Huron.  It was spring, and I had just turned five. My Dad was out all day walking the fields as a cowhand, and my Mom was busy cleaning house and watching my baby brother. There was a small woods at the top of the driveway, and I remember exploring those woods with my little sister, and picking bouquets of these lovely yellow flowers. I was obviously into flowers at a very young age, as several other memories of that farm (where we lived for less than half a year) centre around wildflowers - the blue flags along the stream out front, and wild strawberries in the pastures.  I don't know what it is about the trout lilies, what makes them so special, but to this day they remind me of the awesome wonder of nature to a young child.

Miki likes them too...

Along with the patches of trout lily, the woods are also full of trilliums, the buds just 
starting to open.  In another day or two, the forest floor will be a sea of white trilliums....