The past few weeks have been challenging. It’s nothing life-threatening. Just a lot of changes and stuff all crammed into a small amount of time. The rest of the summer looks like more of the same. Because my head was near the esploding point this morning from stress, I went for a longer than normal weekday hike (1.5 hours instead of 30 minutes). I worried a bit about the pollen: everything is coated in yellow goop and I breathed that stuff in as I hiked. Happily, I survived without an asthma attack. I also managed to get a good workout (I hike very fast, and most of it was uphill over rocks) and see a few birds I’d often heard, but never set eyes on before. Here’s my list for today:
Ovenbird (holy moly, so LOUD)
Brown Thrasher (sweet, sweet song)
Indigo bunting
Eastern wood pewee
Rose breasted grosbeak (female)
Scarlet tanager (female)
Pileated woodpecker
Robin (of course!)
Catbird
Red-bellied woodpecker
Northern Cardinal
I’m happy now. I have no idea what the purple flower is called. I don’t know what the one below is called, either, but they’re gorgeous, aren’t they? These are iPhone pics and I had to crouch over and avoid the poison ivy to get the shot. If I wake up itchy and cranky tomorrow, we will all know why.
Christine Klocek-Lim 
The flower on the bottom is mayapple: common, but cool in so many ways it would take me more than 500 words even to begin to list them all. Reproductive habits, chemical properties, resemblance to Old-World mandrake, etc. Not to mention: umbrellas for toads! On the top, I think that’s showy orchis—an excellent find. (We don’t have it here in the hollow because our soil is too acidic.) See The Virginia Wildflowers site: http://virginiawildflowers.org/2015/04/30/showy-orchis/
Dave, thank you! 🙂