
[ Cherry blossoms ]
That idea didn’t come to me just recently. Quite the opposite. All my years as a kid, the outdoors called, “C’mon, Chris! You aren’t forced to stay inside, especially on a day like this!” And that particular kind of day came for a number of months each year. During April, the rainy month, I stayed in much more than in the following months until November through February which called me to go sled riding or enjoying some other winter fun, like building forts and having snowball fights with my brothers.
As the years went by, I enjoyed introducing David and Biz to the fun times the winter provided. So they too grew up wanting to be outside as often as possible. Camping gave us a chance to enjoy nature all day long. Being away from home, we encountered so many interesting flowers, trees, creeks, bunnies, and chipmunks that our days were filled to the brim with happenings we still talk about when we get together.

[ May apples ]
Along the just-about-a-mile trails we were pleased to find that May apples and service berry are ready for another year of blooming, trying to stand up to the strong northwesterly winds.
I wondered how service berry got its name, and found that some say the flowers started to bloom when the roads in the Appalachian Mountains were becoming passable in the spring. Thus the preachers who traveled around in a certain area would soon be coming, and church services would begin and continue until the snows came again.
The ground was thawed out enough by then that funeral services could be held for those who died in the winter. Some say that’s where the other name of the tree, “sar-vis,” came from. The regular “sarvis” could begin.

[ Vibernum ]

[ New bamboo sprouts ]
Yep, looks like spring is certainly here at last! – CHRIS