Nature Walk - A Spring Forest

On the very same trail we walked on New Year's Day, we found many curiosities to make us stop and wonder. 

Among our finds were roly-poly bugs, which are apparently land living crustaceans called Armadillidium Vulgae, but we'll still call them roly-poly bugs.

 A singing cardinal drew our attention to the tree tops.  We had a bit of trouble locating the bird among the leaves, but eventually, we found her.

We also found may apples, which apparently can be used for medicinal purposes, but we just enjoyed their umbrella like shapes and looked for budding flowers.

Then, we found a plethora of jack-in-the-pulpits, which created a fun hide-n-seek activity for our youngest.  Unfortunately, he tried a bit too hard to cover jack back up and nearly crumpled the entire plant.  My husband smoothed it out and we took solace in the knowledge that the forest was full of other jack-in-the-pulpits.  One less probably wouldn't hurt the entire ecosystem.

A flowering dog wood created a burst of brilliant white in the otherwise green and brown forest.

Along the path, we found ferns unfurling.

Due to illness, it has been several weeks since we were able to get outside and enjoy the beauty of creation during a walk.  We were grateful to do so this past weekend, and hope to return to our regular, almost weekly, nature walks.