Wild Days

It's getting wild out here...as in wild things and wildflowers. I uncovered this little toad yesterday under a pile of leaves that had accumulated next to the front door all winter. He obliged me by jumping onto an oak leaf to have his picture taken.

Wildflowers are popping up on the edges of our woods. These early examples are just the beginning of the parade of wildflowers that will last through October. Although it's May I haven't seen any May apples. Maybe they're deeper in the woods than I've ventured lately. I love their shiny leaves and the unusual way the delicate white flowers bloom beneath them.

When I lived in Hermann, one of my favorite events was the annual wildflower walk each May at a nearby state park. Whole families would take part in this highly anticipated event, during which we'd see at least two dozen or more species. Several people had been going on the walk for many years; they kept journals in which they noted having seen more than 100 flowers, including some extremely rare ones, over the course of all the walks.

Some of these same people also hunted morels. I suppose morel season has passed now. I never knew about this hysteria-inducing mushroom before I moved to Hermann. We never had morel walks because everyone had his or her own "secret" morel-hunting spot and made a big deal out of it. As a result, over time I found the whole morel business more and more obnoxious. The mushroom tastes okay; finding and preparing it seemed like a lot of bother for something not all that special. But above all, I thought the supposed location of a bunch of mushrooms (which may or may not be the same place every year) was a dumb thing to act all mysterious about.