This past week was our annual spring ephemerals hike...and it might've been our most successful one ever! So many flowers...
spring beauty
celadine poppy
dwarf larkspur
Virginia bluebells
nodding trillium
rue anemone
But my very favorite...at least on this hike...was the wild blue phlox.
It grew en masse along the hiking trail...
...and everywhere else!
It was absolutely magical! Of course, we saw a lot of interesting non-flowers too...a lot of beautiful green grown. Spring chartreuse is my favorite!
solomon's seal
wild ginger
So many different types of ferns, too!
rattlesnake fern
broad beech fern
It was perfect! However, we had some nature-related sadness this week, too. Eastern tent caterpillars were spotted along our daily walking path...
...and, at home, I kept seeing a white-tailed deer in our front barn yard. I was surprised it was alone and that it didn't run away...
...until I saw its front hoof/ankle, swollen to many times its normal size.
A little searching told me that this was likely hoof rot, an infection that can happen when a cut becomes infiltrated by bacteria. At this late phase, it's probably fatal. I emailed our local DNR contact, who sent me a list of county resources, cautioning that it was likely that I would need to let nature take its course. As I suspected, not one local organization handled deer.
Two days ago, the deer spent most of the day lying in the shade...today, it's gone. I hate to see any animal suffer...and yesterday, we caught a coyote on our trail cam...missing a back foot!
It's heartbreaking. There's no way that this guy can probably survive, and we have no way of helping him...or the infected deer, for that matter. We just have to, as the DNR contact suggested, let nature take its course.
Try to focus on other things, like new life.
It's not easy, but I'm trying to just look forward.
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