Monday walk…on the wild side

After getting back from Philadelphia, I wanted to get to the park, worried that the wildflowers might have bloomed without me.  But the combination of rain and coolness worked in my favor.  On Friday morning, I donned my Sperry duck boots and headed down the back trail.  It’s going to be a bad year for ticks, so I had tights on under my hiking pants and my socks up over the bottoms.  I have a healthy respect (and dislike) for ticks and their diseases.

Besides all the spring green, there lay spread before me thousands, possibly millions, of wildflowers, many still waiting to bloom.  You can’t really get a feel from a photo of how many there are, as they’re not large and flashy.  But I’ll do the best I can.  Besides the flowers, there were wild onions, their delicate scent mouth-watering.

Wildflowers nestled everywhere among other plants and dead leaves.   They, as people do, tend to cluster with like, although there are some exceptions.

I walked slowly, keeping my eyes down, both to find flowers and to try to avoid the worst of the mud, although by the time I finished, my boots were well and truly caked.

 To the right is the river.

Finally I come to the masses of violets, so small yet so beautiful.

I sat for a long time on a tree fallen across the trail, forest bathing.  Eventually I had to get up and finish my walk.  But later that day, I spent two hours helping with a park district clean-up, walking “my” path in the opposite direction, filling two bags with trash, a very satisfying experience.  At the other entrance, I regularly pick up trash on my own.

It seems we might get a lot of rain this week, but I’ll take the first chance to check on the status of the rest of those wildflowers.  Keeps me sane.  🙂

for Jo’s Monday Walk