Spring awakens with beauty and color!

Pink Azaleas

Springtime brings an awakening of many plants and critters we haven’t seen through the winter. They have been nearby all along, but just not in the way we typically imagine them. Trees without leaves have their own winter beauty, but there’s something special about the bare twigs becoming flag wavers.

I’ve come to realize that if I had paid more attention in botany class instead of staring out the window, I would now be able to share with taxonomic precision the identity of plants wisely. Carl Linnaeus (Swedish Botanist) had it right—find them, admire them, name them, and let others remember what an Ulmus alata(Winged Elm) is. All I know is Corky Wings would be a great stage name.

To me, walking in the forest in the spring can be like meeting an acquaintance on the street – the face is familiar but the name eludes me. Then coming across others is like meeting up with an old friend. That moment of completeness felt when what wasn’t there last week is there today. Like the line in the Robert Earl Keene song; “when I caught your eye, I saw you break into a grin, feels so good feeling good again."

People and plants share a robust relationship of fortune and fate. A plant’s actual physical winter can be mirrored in our human winters of darkness or despair. We both go through periods of disease, stress, and senescence. And despite that, also of growth.

That’s why spring's showy gathering of flora display can make a person feel like they’ve just arrived at a party with a chance to renew familiar old friendships.

So here’s who I saw across the room:

Azaleas on Bear Creek Lake

I always wait for this Wild Azalea to bloom along the Bear Creek Lake shoreline. In the surrounding forest, wild azalea bushes seem to pop up randomly not as a group but as individuals, and all have a special beauty.

Flowering Dogwood

Flowering Dogwood trees are found all through Cumberland County and Virginia forests. Not every year will bring the full glory of a widespread synchronized dance of white petals. However, when you meet one under a clear blue spring sky, you can recall them as long being a part of your life.

Lady Slippers in the woods

And then there are the ladies who gather and dance, only to soon fade away waiting for another springtime and another dance. These Lady’s Slippers arrived at Bear Creek Lake State Park about a week early this year than in their typical end of April recital. Even before I could read their name tags - Hello! My name is Cypripedium acaule – I knew their faces and broke into a grin.

Get more information on Bear Creek Lake State Park. Get more information on all Virginia State Parks.