My attention however is not towards the sky, but instead towards the forest floor. My eye is in search of the wild and fragile trillium. Today they are sparse, much more difficult to find than I expected. At times I come across small patches, but nothing like I have encountered in the past.Many times in my life I have been lucky enough to stumble upon large patches of these inspiring flowers. The most memorable happened seven years ago on the Memorial Day weekend my wife and I got engaged. We were camped near Crandon, WI. and our campground was flush with trillium. On Saturday of that weekend we were met with a late May snowstorm. As depressing as it was for us, for the lively and vibrant trillium it appeared to be devastating. Bent over with the weight of a heavy spring-time snowstorm, I still recall Carri commenting how sad and dramatic those trillium looked. However the next morning we awoke to sparkling sunshin
e and terrific warmth. Not only were our spirits high, we were also inspired by the trillium dancing happily in that fresh sunshine. By the way they sparkled that morning, who could tell that only the day before they were cowering under the weight of cold, wet snow. Their toughness, oh so apparent then, has forever stayed with me.This beautiful and simple white flower is unarguably my favorite. Although my wife and I have three small clumps of trillium growing in our poorly managed garden, it is the trillium of northern Wisconsin that always catch my heart.
I enjoyed your trilium post. One of my woodland favorites as well. The trilliums that grow here in southeast Minnesota hold their flowers underneath the leaves. Years ago my sons and I were canoeing the upper St. Croix and I saw many that held their flowers upright. Now, having transplanted one, my woodland wildflower garden is full of them. They, indeed, are a gem.
ReplyDeleteKia ora Larry,
ReplyDeleteA walk in the northern Wisconsin woods does my far away soul much good. Like an itch I can finally scratch. I can smell the forest from here.
I am often amazed here in the New Zealand mountains how below the bush line the forest holds its lush green integrity throughout the winter, and in spite of often heavy snow - such as now. One of the coolest sights to see in the Aotearoa forest in winter are patches of green New Zealand fern covered in snow.
Glad to read from you here in the blogosphere mate and I appreciate your words in the first post. Those were simple days back in Madison and even Minneapolis when the biggest worries were where we going to play that day and drink that night, but there are still a small number pf people where quality friendships emerged and I am happy to relight this one. Rave on Larry!
Ka kite ano,
Robb