Ten Days Later

Ouabache Trails Park

Knox County, Indiana

March 11, 2013

Spring is heading home like a freight train. 

 At first it is a distant rumble, and we are not sure what we are sensing. Then it comes closer. We can feel the vibration, see the steam. We begin to hear the clatter of its wheels on the track. The rate of its approach seems exponential, and we are surprised by how quickly it appears, how much louder are the signs of its imminent arrival.

Ten days after the previous blog entry:

For a couple of weeks, I had been seeing the tiny salt-and-pepper blossoms of Harbinger-of-Spring peeking through the leaf litter. I would have to look diligently for one, but after my eyes adjusted to seeing one, I would see many around me. It was the distant rumble of Spring.

Now they proclaim their existence loudly. Their feathery leaves are evident and bright green, providing contrast between the flowers and the brown forest floor.

More spring plants have popped up near the base of a tree. Some of these will be sprinkled with spots of light yellow, next month.

Raindrops dapple the crinkly folds of unfolding Dwarf Larkspur plants, which will later display bright purple flowers.

A three-leaved Toadshade Trillium unfolds, revealing three sepals that are wrapped around the flower bud.

A Prairie Trillium has seemed to have bounced up from the forest floor, the stalked leaves still moving away from the flower bud in the center. Three leaf-like sepals will appear soon, curving below the leaves.

Jacob's Ladder has suddenly appeared in its early purplish stage, with purple stalks bearing swollen purple buds.

Another purple plant appears with purple buds, held tightly closed like tiny red onions.

More swollen flower buds in purple and green, this Cut-leaved Toothwort is about to pop.

The new colors of Spring: Purple Cress in full lavender bloom.

I hear the train a-comin'....