Not a lot of flowers to be found at Spruce Knob and Seneca Rocks, but these were pretty.

Late September is when the earliest leaves change color in areas like Cranberry Glades and Dolly Sods and Canaan Valley. Since I love Cranberry Glades best that’s where we went.

Not much in the way of leaf color, but a beautiful day nevertheless.

The monitor on my Asus laptop died, and although I did use my desktop computer for processing images, if I’m going to spend lots of time on the computer, I’d rather do so upstairs on a laptop, so Michael and I can be in the same room ignoring each other.

Saturday we hiked the rail trail along the Blackwater Canyon, and we did manage to see wildflowers (even if there were (sadly) no snacks along the trail).

Not *quite* UF, but definitely not high fantasy, I do recommend Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos series. I’ve fallen off keeping up with the series, because there were a LOT of delays for about a decade, but I need to pick it back up.

Orchids were in bloom at Cranberry Glades.

Also in bloom:

It was a LOVELY day to be in the Cranberry Wilderness and walk the Cranberry Glades boardwalk.

Wednesday Jules and I went to the WV Botanic garden for a walk and to take pictures.

Mountain laurel is probably my favorite WV native flower.

I adore the open flowers, and how they look like porcelain tea cups. The the buds are a marvel, with their sharp lines and darker colors.

So gorgeous.

Our original plans for the weekend were thrown into disarray, so we went to Canaan Valley on Saturday for a little hiking, and to see what spring wildflowers were out.

Answer: lots and lots.

I really want an app that gives me the forecast for the state and tells me where it will NOT be raining over the weekend. Is that really so much to ask?

The forecast looked least wet in the Berkeley Springs area, so we headed east to do some hiking at Cacapon.

Irises

Pink Lady Slipper

FUTURE SNACKS!!!!

Our last hike (Canaan & Blackwater Falls) were a dud as far as spring wildflowers went.

Our trip to Cranberry Glades was FULL of wildflowers. It was a gorgeous day.

Swamp cabbage Symplocarpus foetidus

Marsh Marigold Caltha palustris

Pitcher Plants Sarracenia

Trout lily!

Trillium!

I wanted to get out of town this weekend, so we headed to Canaan / Blackwater Falls, because they’re so close.

I also wanted to see wild flowers; I should have suggested New River Gorge. Because there was not much in bloom. But there were some things.

I know the area is a couple weeks behind is, but I expected I might see bloodroot or spring beauties. Nope. I did see leaves for upcoming trout lilies.

Clubmoss!

Violets!

Bluets! (I adore bluets)

And OMG! Pixie cup lichens!

So! Adorable!

Trout lily Erythronium americanum

Dutchman’s Breeches Dicentra cucullaria

Bloodroot Sanguinaria canadensis

Bluebells Mertensia virginica

It was a nice walk at the Botanic Garden, but it’s hot and humid and now we’re both wiped out.

Rhododendron (The WV State Flower!)

Bird’s Foot Trefoil (Lotus cornicilatus)

Sweet clover (Melilotus)

Coreopsis (Tickseed)