trout fishing in america, or, a tour of the mystery woodland

Could it be any more beautiful these days? I don’t remember a May quite this spectacular. Maybe that’s because the first week of the first May that I experienced in Vermont, in 2000, there was still snow on the ground – enough to snowshoe in. I was just wrapping up my first semester at Antioch, getting my master’s in Environmental Science, and I was living out in Whitingham at an elevation at least 1,000 feet higher than here in Westminster. 

Now, the very first class I took at Antioch – the one that met at 8:30 am on Thursdays – starting in January, when the temperature at that hour was usually about 3 – was New England Flora, the aim of which was to teach you how to identify about 80 trees and shrubs. In winter conditions. Translation: buy yourself a pair of Sorels.

“Good to minus 40 degrees!” Yeah, it was brutal. But I loved it, and in a minute you’re going to see why.

But before all that, let’s just show off the results of all Michael’s hard work. I didn’t post pictures of the finished floors yesterday because by the time we moved all the furniture back in to each of the spaces, it was getting late – it was too dark to get nice looking pictures, and dinner called. So, sorry for the delay. I know you’ve been biting your nails in anticipation, right?

TA – DAH!!!! The batcave.

This room has changed so much over the last three years – two huge windows replacing a single, smaller window, two complete paint jobs, and now this. As Kevin said this morning, this is no longer the room where light goes to die. We might have to rechristen it. Yes, an area rug would be nice. And yeah, I’m no longer in love with that futon cover.

 

Ah, the front room! So lovely!

This is a temporary, “summer” configuration. I suspect we’ll go back to the other way – where the loveseat is up against the far wall, facing you – after not too long. Yep, I spent at least an hour ensconced in that club chair, catching up with my wife, Michele, earlier today. Joy! and, Thank you, Michael!

Oh, I think I may have more proof that my boy is left handed:

Had he been using his left hand to hammer, would this have happened? Ouch!

 

Moving right along to the green stuff…

LOOK AT THE SEEDLINGS! Seven out of twelve cilantro starts (the ones in the six-packs) and six out of ten of the basil. Is that a good rate? I have no idea.

And look what else I did yesterday – I bought two sungolds – these are those delicious yellow cherry tomatoes – and the requisite pots and what not.

Before.

After.

Yeah, theoretically I could have saved a lot of money by planting them in the “real” ground, but have you seen our lawn?

Hello, lawn! (Yeah, we have yet to put down grass seed… ) Yep, container gardening it is.

And now to the subject of this post: trout fishing in america. This is the name of a novel by Richard Brautigan, which I no longer remember. (Goodbye, sophomore year of college! It was nice knowing you!) But I did spend the afternoon looking for some trout lily I’d spotted in the side yard a few days ago. I couldn’t find the little suckers, but I found plenty of other stuff I hadn’t expected. Remember how I was whining about New England Flora a minute ago? Well, at the end of that semester, we learned…wildflowers!

For context, here’s where we are:

And if we turn around, this is what we see…

Sweet woodland mystery, carpeted in Vinca minor – myrtle, or periwinkle. OK, let’s dive in:

Bunch of stuff going on here.  We have a starflower (Trientalis borealis) in the lower left, only I don’t see the flower yet, just the fan of leaves. The glossy dark green leaves are the myrtle I mentioned above. See their purple flowers? Then, those occasional bursts of white flowers are – I think – saxifrage. I’ll have to check. 

Here’s some more of that maybe-saxifrage, and some myrtle (dark glossy leaves), and a maple seedling to the right, but the reason I took the picture is the fiddleheads – the ferns starting to unfurl. See the fuzzy white circle in the lower center of the picture?

 

More fern babies getting their groove on.

 

I saw a bunch of these heart-shaped leaves, no flowers yet, and I have no idea what they are. I bet I used to know. After all, it’s been ten years. Oooh, I love the light in this one.

 

Mystery white flower. Stay tuned.

 

OH! This is so cool. I think this might be maidenhair fern, but I don’t have a fern identification book. What makes me think of maidenhair is the shape: the single stem (which I’m holding), leading to a tiara-shaped curve, with the array of leafy stems (is that the word?) coming off it. I’ve looked up pictures online, but so far haven’t seen any with the triangular kind of leaves this guy has. They almost look like miniature gingko leaves.

Now I’m going to show you the same picture, re-centered and cropped:

Those are two maroon trillium – they’re done flowering.

 

Primrose! It looks so…fussy to me, but it’s in the wildflower book, so maybe it’s not (as I had originally thought) originally from some nursery somewhere.  Then again, I see it on the edges of the lawn, as though it were planted…who knows.

I believe this stuff might be selfheal, in the mint family. Our lawn used to be COVERED in this stuff, which was great – a purple lawn, what more could you ask for?

 

Miterwort or Bishop’s cap (Mitella diphylla)

Starflower (Trientalis borealis) again. This particular one has one flower. Apparently sometimes they have more.

I think this is False Solomon’s Seal. 

After drooling in the woods for a while, I finally went to visit the rest of the immediate lawn area.

One of the last blooms on the magnolia. Sob!

The azalea over by the garden shed is all done, and is at that stage where the flowers close up and get busy making azalea babies.

This is a fringe tree that’s a long way from blooming, but when it goes, watch out – a riotous mass of white flowers that smell positively divine. We’re on the west side of the house, outside the kitchen window.

And, clearing the corner and coming back around to the front steps, check out this apple tree…happy sigh…

LET’S MAKE MORE APPLES! C’MON, BEES!

  And as if all that weren’t enough: the lilacs are starting to bloom!

And thus concludes today’s tour on a fine spring day. I hope you had fun. I’ll just leave you with one more thing: a picture from The Google of trout lily. So named, for its mottled leaves.