Fragments From Floyd

I think it's safe to say that the show of Spring is about over. Even here in our cold little valley--always one of the last to get frost-free days--the poplars are full of miniature leaves and the canopy is closing in on the very private forest experience of summer foliage. Now, we will have months when you can't see into the forest for the trees. Here's what I wrote this time last year:

Spring starts where the weather suits its clothes... in the warm, sunny, sheltered valley floor at the lower elevations. And as the season matures, the bloom-line slowly, day by day, rises up the mountain slopes (sooner and faster on the southern exposure) toward the crest, where for all practical botanical purposes, this week it is still winter--bare and brown and threadbare above a riot of green and chartreuse coming up from below. It is fully mid-spring in Salem at lower elevation. In two weeks, if I go to the Naturalist Rally at Mt. Rogers, it will be perfect early spring at the campgrounds at 4000 feet, spring wildflowers at their peak there that have been gone for weeks here at the house.

I might just tell you that this year--for the first time since 1986-- I am going to the Naturalist Rally next week. You can bet there will be stories and pictures. Stay tuned!