There's nothing quite like a spring forest to enchant and surprise anyone strolling along trails to enjoy the freshness of incoming foliage on surrounding trees as the forest canopy fills out with amazing speed to its full flush of green.

As for the surprises, they exist in minute discoveries. Glancing right and left beside the trail pathways reveals the presence of nature's little gifts in living colour. The early spring volunteers enjoying the sun's warmth before the canopy is fully flushed and their space on the forest floor becomes too shaded for bloom, begin to erupt in a joyful celebration of eternal renewal from winter sleep to spring awakening.

The succession above the forest floor, in blossoming trees like Hawthorne, Cherry, Apple, Serviceberry and Honeysuckle have their counterpart below as multifarious ferns begin unfurling their fronds, and wildflowers join the free-for-all of release from slumbering soil.

False Solomon's Seal

Beginning to bloom we see False Solomon's Seal, in the Bilberry Creek ravine, and red baneberry along with foamflower, Jack-in-the-Pulpits, trilliums, dandelions, trout lilies, strawberry, coltsfoot, ground ivy and dogtooth violets. Our very most unfavourite plant is also now in evidence, possibly the most primitive of all forest plants, used in medieval times as an abrasive for vellum; horsetails.

The most exciting to us are the Jacks; we transplanted several in our garden years ago and they've grown to tremendous proportions, far larger than the originals we took from the ravine. They've thrived incredibly well, as have the foamflower, and somewhat less so, the purple trilliums. They're a prized addition to our garden, pleasing us just as much as sighting them in the ravine.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

But the ravine remains our special getaway into nature, a gateway to both physical exercise and the opportunity to bask in the natural world surrounding us.

foreground: Trout Lily

Red baneberry