Behind My House

The remainder of gray storm clouds intermingle in the sky, quickly being replaced by bright baby blue skies, and white-as-snow clouds that drift in the air like giant platinum blonde cauliflowers.

Camera in hand, I trot off the porch and notice the first of Queen Ann's Lace has bloomed, a surefire sign that spring is passing the torch to summer. I've always enjoyed Queen Ann's Lace as it can add a visual frosting to any summer time field.





I shuffle up through the relatlively high grass (damn it needs cutting!), and notice that the roses I bought mom for mothers day a couple years ago are growing up the side of the house quite nicely! And in bloom no less!





When I had bought this rose for mom, it was little more than a pathetic rose bush with a few stems!

Forthward I moved through the wet grass. The earth was still aborbing the moisture from the rain that had just passed, and although the sun was once again blazing, puddles of rain still rested in just about ever crevace in every leaf and every dip in the road alongside my house.

Now you guys know how much I love nature snooping, but today I wasn't going to be able to go to my favorite jaunt. Because of that, I opted to poke around the small stretch of woods behind my house, where I quickly discovered that there were many stories to be told!!

I entered the forest as it glowed in the late morning light, and birds sang merrily, evidently happy about the cooled air, moisture, and recent abundance of insect life.



Only a few yards within the woods a large patch of grass had cashew shaped compressions in the lush green grass, showing that deer had been bedding here. They were facing downhill, looking straight into my back yard. Truth be told, they probably ventured all around the neighborhood, taking advantage of the lovely gardens.






Actually, the deer venture down here quite often...even though I don't live in the country. The small forest behind my house is basically a ridge that has remained unscathed by mans developement opportunities, and that twists back and around the high school, connecting to the southern part of the town, and eventually the country again.

This little peninsula of forest is surrounded by housing and neighborhoods, but is a great place for nature lovers like myself to escape the world.



The loud piercing cry of a blue jay penetrates the forest canopy, and I see him land on a nearby snag. I managed to get a picture of him, though low in quality. Despite this, my drawing of this bird is much better!! Just wait and see!

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With that, I turned my attention to the forest floor for my photographic prey, where I found plenty to snap shots of!



The above plant is known as "May-Apple". It grows on the forest floor, and should insects or small animals ever wish to flee the rain, all the need do is hide under this umbrella of a plant!

A turn of the head revealed a hidden sanctuary filled with one of my (obviously) favorite wildflowers, the Phlox! This particular plant was white, and quite pleasant to look at!



Then I came across something exceptionally bizarre!



It looked like a fake flower. Like some misplaced flower oranament that had been carried into the woods by a mischevious squirrel. A few steps however, revealed another.



That wasn't all. These flowers were everywhere on the forest floor, and I quickly remembered that they were the blooms of the Tulip tree, or Poplar, a close relative of the maple.

Of all the deciduous trees in Pennsylvania, few bare such bizarre and tropical looking flora. I was absolutely thrilled, because I never in my life had held one in my hand, or seen one up close! (Oddly enough, this tree is quite common, but the flowers go unnoticed from afar, because of their green coloration.

Then, something on a decaying log caught my eye.







Mushrooms!

Depending on what type of tree the log belonged to, the species of mushrooms growing would vary. Some were tan little umbrellas like the one above, and others were long stemmed and more specific, like a parasol.



And these little guys seemed relatively common:






A few more logs yeilded some even more unique mushrooms, including these beauts that seemed to beg for attention with their vibrant colors on the dark bark and tree remains.







I shuffled around a bit more, and discovered two very bizarre members of the mushroom family indeed! One relatively common one was a black slime ball:





And then there was this little pretty ghost-like mushroom that reminded me of little mouse ears!





Oh, and here's the gilled underside of one I plucked from the log:



Eventually, a quickly dying camera battery pulled me from the forest (not without a few cus words mumbled mind you!), where on my way out I managed to snap a few more photos of our state flower (Mountain Laurel), some beautiful prehistoric looking ferns, and some more rather interesting fungi near the edge of the woods.









Well...off to cut that grass of mine!