I came across a few flowers yesterday while we were out for Jules’ birthday party, and today we took a relaxing stroll at the WV Botanic Garden.

No poppies, but it was a nice reflective walk (except for the occasional bursts of gunfire (because there is a gun club less than a mile away (no, I’m not kidding, this IS West-by-God Virginia))).

Despite the name, I’m fond of spiderwort.

I really do love Mountain Laurel flowers

You can see the climate differences between the Canaan Valley area and further north where I am,by the fact there were still violets blooming.

Mountain Laurel are hardy shrubs that can tenaciously hold on into the cracks of rocks.

Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia)

Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)

Oh my god! Look at all the future snacks!

Wild blueberries (vaccinium angustifolium)

Sometimes you have to get close down to the ground to notice some of the tiny, beautiful flowers.

ANOTHER DAY OF NOT RAIN!!!!!

Columbine

Dutch Iris

Bluet

I wasn’t scoping out future snacks. (I totally was.)

Peony

The weather threatened storms most of the day, so when it cleared in the later afternoon, we made a quick, late trip to the WV Botanic Garden.

Not as many flowers blooming as I was expecting, and the humidity was vile, but it was still a nice walk. Also, the spring peppers were going crazy. I thought about grabbing a video clip of how loud they were, but I’d left my phone in the car.

Dogwood (Cornus florida)

Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus)

Various Rhododendron:

Violets

Allium

probably an apple

Rainy Saturday, but today was gorgeous and there were lots of wildflowers at Coopers Rock.

Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum)

Red Trillium (Trillium erectum)

Wood Geranium (Geranium maculata)

?Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia L.)?

Spring beauty (Claytonia virginica)

Since the early flowers are blooming (those that didn’t die because of the early warm spell) we went to the Botanic Garden.

Tibbs Run

First rhododendron of the year!

Grape hyacinth

These tiny daffodils are adorable.

Today needed something relaxingly active, so we took a trip to the WV Botanic Garden

Happy Fall!

Saturday we went to Summersville to see the lake at its high levels. But of course we went on a hike and saw flowers.

Last hike was mountain laurel, this week, rhododendron.

I was sort of obsessed with the Mountain Laurel on our hike.

Blackberry flowers

Here’s a little of what we saw hiking the Glade Creek Trail at the New River Gorge.

Lots of different flowers blooming in different areas: at Spruce Knob and Dolly Sods we saw trillium, which bloomed here a month ago.

Flax

Blueberries

Chokeberries

Irises with hot butterfly on flower action

Since it was on the way, we stopped at Cranberry Glades on our way home.

In addition to the boardwalk, we took a short hike along Charles Creek Trail.

I now need to go back and follow the entire trail, because there were random interpretive signs about a prison there prior to and during WWII.

Busy day!

We went to the WV Botanic Garden this morning, and then this afternoon, we biked along the Mon River Rail Trail