Blossoms upon the trees, blossoms upon the earth

I simply had to begin with the image of the tiny white flowers on another as yet unknown herbaceous species. These little white flowers are reaching up all around the tree roots along the trees beside the cottage. The violets are popping up across the grassy fields with several other tiny ground-dwelling flowers.

You may recall me mentioning that next to the cottage we have a line of large trees, which includes the eastern white pines that I blogged about when we first arrive in Pennsylvania.

At the end of the row is this tree which just opened its blossoms. Like so many trees around here, I do not yet know its identity (yet being the operative word).

The final picture is to give you an idea of what the whole tree looks like. It’s tall and skinny, with lots of crazy hair on top! Once it puts out leaves, I’ll be able to use the tree identification guide to make an educated guess at its species.

Shades of Green

Another mystery under the trees

While we continue to ponder the common identity of the mysterious yellow-flowered plant, I have another one to share with you!

Also happily growing under the trees is this little plant. What’s really amazing about this one, is that I could see these green leaves when we arrived here back in December; furthermore, apart from a little die-back during the snow, these herbaceous leaves have persisted throughout the winter.

Apart from the grasses and the little dandelion whorls that wait out the winter, this is one of the ONLY green leafy plants that I saw during the cold season. Now that spring is warming the earth, they are exploding across the area. I can’t wait to see what their flowers look like! (Surely the must have flowers.)

I wonder, is there an identification guide out there for “shrubby little weed-like creatures”? Personally, I love all weeds… dandelions are among my favorite flowers. I use “weeds” as a term of endearment for many wonderful and resilient plants! There is no such thing as weed killer in my garden shed.