WW: Silver birch catkins

(Betula pendula. The catkins ripen from the stem to stern, so for a short period in the spring, the trees are covered with two-toned flowers.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Western trumpet honeysuckle

(Lonicera ciliosa. Iconic flower of the North Coast understory.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Sun shower

(Not real interested in coming back inside today.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

The Inevitable Spring

The warbler
wipes its muddy feet
on plum blossoms

–Issa


(Plum Garden, Kamata, by Utagawa Hiroshige, courtesy of Rawpixel.com.)

WW: Signal the uprising!

(Narcissus garden blooms have long become wildflowers here on the North Coast, punching up in lawns and pastures, along roads, and, as here, in open forests. Most years they announce the coming of spring just days before it arrives, their bright yellow blossoms chiming like bells in the cold dark wet of late winter.

Each year I'm sceptical, and each year I'm wrong.)

WW: Native rhodendron

(Rhododendron macrophyllum, the Pacific rhododendron, is the state flower of Washington. In late spring it bursts out in the grey-green twilight of the North Coast jungle, where its pale pink blossoms seem to glow above the undergrowth. When my mom was in high school, kids in her small Puget Sound town used to cut truckloads of these from the forests along the bay, to fill the gym for prom.

Open in a new tab for greater impact.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Nootka rose

(Rosa nutkana; native to the North Coast. One of my favourite flowers, and everywhere this time of year.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Pink hawthorn spray

(Crataegus sp. Our usual hawthorn blossoms are white.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Apple blossoms

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Rainbow over the farm

(Open in a new window to see full-size.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Slough mushrooms

(Unidentified; growing on a maple log surrounded by water one to two feet deep.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Spring blessing

(Pieris japonica, known here as popcorn bush, is a popular landscaping shrub on the North Pacific Coast. Native to the same latitudes on the far side of the ocean, where climate and soil types are about identical, I'm told it fills whole ravines in Japanese forests. This must be brilliant to see, given its heady fragrance and dense sprays of sparkler-bright blossoms.

The early-spring show, and the fact that we had one at every house I can remember – always right by the front door – made this a favourite flower from early childhood. It's also a good carving and turning wood, fairly soft and light but fine-grained, taking an oil finish well; properties apparently unknown outside of Asia, given the absence of mention online, at least in any of my languages.)


Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Empty egg

(For my money, the American robin [Turdus migatorius] lays the most beautiful eggs in the woods, and we often find large pieces of their intensely blue shells discarded on the ground after a successful hatching. Sadly, that's not the case with this one, as something has chiseled a hole in it and sucked out the contents. Squirrel is my guess, though other suspects include crows, Steller's jays, or even rats. A greater expert than I could no doubt finger the miscreant by the size and shape of the perforation.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Japanese cherries

(This is the fruit of the Japanese cherry tree [Prunus spp.; Cerasus spp.], whose blossoms bring world-famous glowing colour to the north and south Pacific Rim in spring. Its fruit, on the other hand, is viewed as inedible; some authorities even insist it's poisonous.

It isn't. It just tastes bad.

The stiff, bitter flesh of Japanese cherries is indeed uninspired fresh fruit, to put it mildly, but they still have the vibrant colour and heady fragrance of their more palatable cousins. Hence, cooked well and sugared judiciously, they can yield a cranberry-like jelly that's not at all objectionable.

Here I've gleaned about 3 cups of them from a local tree; I plan to simmer them in cider to impart to it their colour and perfume, much as sorbs – a similar fruit – are sometimes used. Afterward, I'll probably make kvass from the cider.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: English daisy

(Charming harbinger of spring, tiny four-inch version of the oxeye and a native of Europe, Bellis perennis invades fields and some lawns on the North Coast this time of year.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Spring at last

(Taraxacum officinale. One of my favourite wildflowers.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Large snake in the driveway

(Garter snake [Thamnophis, suspect sirtalis pickeringii], something short of 3 feet, recently awakened, and probably pregnant.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Full moon of March 2023

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Nettle season

(Good eating while they last.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.

WW: Hailstorm

(Huge black cloud rolled in on a brilliant sunny day today, and suddenly we were being hammered with bean-sized hail. Not uncommon for late winter/early spring on the North Coast, though the size of the stones was notable. Open photo below in a new window to see the air filled with ice.)

Appearing also on My Corner of the World.