Spring succession is fast underway in the forest of the Bilberry Creek ravine. Yesterday was hot and windy. The glory that was the wild apple trees in full bloom is no more, the flower petals scattered by the high, dry winds that permeated the day, falling like snow in May.

Hawthorne

But there are other blossoms sending their fragrance on the wind. The dogwood are just beginning to send up what will soon become blossoms. And the cherry trees are dangling their blossom clusters.

Cherry

The Hawthorne trees first to lose their leaves in the fall and the last to gain them once again in the spring, have begun their blossom time. And the honeysuckle bushes are blushing their blooms once again, in pale pink and bright white.

Honeysuckle

While the trilliums that first paraded themselves on the forest floor are beginning to fade, others are still coming up. Now is the time for Jack-in-the-Pulpits to strut their stuff, those blossom-shy beauties that people tend not to recognize unless they have been taught to do so, and many have not. The foamflower are in full display, a head start on the heuchera we grow in our gardens, cultivated versions of the foamflower.

Foamflower

No bells yet on the lilies-of-the-valley in the forest, though those in our garden have now opened and prepare to sweeten the atmosphere with their divine fragrance. It is all so lovely, and all so fleeting. We've yet to come across blue-eyed grasses this year, rarely seeing them but for one spot in the ravine, but they're absent this year, so far.

Because it's spring, and we've had a number of encouraging spring rainfalls, mushrooms and shelf fungi are making their appearance, those strange and fascinating botanical specimens that thrive on the remains of deadwood.

Shelf Fungi