Well, yesterday was gorgeous so I loaded up my small knapsack with some water, several plastic bags and a knife, grabbed my 410/22 rifle (see bear story) fired up the Kubota and headed back into the woods to hunt the elusive morelle mushrooms...

Well, as luck would have it I found a place where Mr. Clifford told me about back 'round a mile up the loggin' road... So I left the Kabota right there in the middle of thye loggin' road, took the key out in case the bear had any thoughts of takin' it on a joy ride and headed down, down down into this valley that runs parrelel to our farm but this was way up where the springs feed the strream that runs thru our neighbors farm...

Well, it was moist in the very middle but dryer on the sides... It kinda looked like a the kinda area where wild flowers would do well so I plunked myself down in one of the dryer areas and just kinda surveyed the 30 or so feet I could see in most directions and I'm real glad I did cause...

...right next to where I had laid my knapsack I noticed an orchid... But it had no stem and the leaf was monsterously large... Like 9 inches long and absolutely beautiful so I carefully took my knife and purdy soon had a the orchid and about a 6 inch root (bulb) ball... When I get my fingers under it and pulled it out I found not one bulb but two white bulbs just a tad smaller than a golf ball... I'm not sure what kind of orchid it is but the P-Vine says they used to grow on a creek when she lived in a wooded area outside of Charlotte and the leaf is the bloom??? Sound fishy to me but I'm
just the the dumb guy...

Also dug up a couple black kohosh which were right there next to where I was sitting... We just add them to our collection...

So then my eye starting to wander and next thing ya know I spied 4 nice morelles (mergals) which are now cut, cleaned and wrapped up in a paper towel in the frig...

Drove to Charlottesville for a medical appointment on Friday which involves going over the mountain and about 3/4's the way up there on the side of US Route 33 was an entire bank of blood root in full bloom... There musta been thousands of blooms... Absolutely spectacular... Makes our little 2 foot patch of them look like nuthin'... Twin Leaf is up... Native trillium are in bloom... Larskspu is up... We have our first bleeding heart bloom... Several early azaleas are beginning to open... Oh yeah, one of our NC natives (yellow) is in full bloom...

That's it fir now...

B~