home for spring

 We're home! Here is the auspicious rainbow overlooking our last night on the road home.  As we drove into the neighboring county just west of ours I just couldn't believe how green everything was. There was evidence of flooding in the fields and along the creek banks following the road, and the rain has brought abundant greenness to the woods...

 We postponed unpacking and settling in for a day, as we had glorious weather in the 70's yesterday and rain forecast for today. So off to the woods to visit friends we went...golf in the woods for Dan (really, it needs its own post. I'll work on that...), running running running for the girls, and a lovely walk in the woods with a friend and a cat for me.

Dogwood

Showy Orchid

Madge stayed with us the entire time, alternately prowling about investigating the leaf litter and coming back for rubs. I love walking the woods with a cat.  And this sweet woman might be the only person I know who hikes in her pearls.

Trillium

Blue Cohosh

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

 It was just what we all needed yesterday - to be enveloped in the sweet combination of full-on spring and dear friends who were so glad to see us.

 Today - May Day! - is a day we usually spend outside (surprise!), hiking in the woods to enjoy Spring's bounty, gathering wild edibles to celebrate this season, sometimes making May goddesses, picking violets and dandelions from our yard to put in salads, make garlands, decorate the house...Today what we needed was what the rain offered us: a day to gather ourselves, to settle back in, burrowed in our cups of tea, bowls of soup, and piles of books.  Eliza and I made a mess in the kitchen - she with muffins, me with yogurt, soup, waffles...The girls did carry on our tradition of a honey bath in celebration of May; they picked a "wildflower" to decorate the bathroom with (when I went in I discovered it was garlic mustard, an invasive species that smells like, well, garlic!) and jumped in with their cups of honey....