3 Cool Things

It has been raining, raining, raining for days, but finally this evening the sun came out.  I  walked down the squishy path to the big rock at the edge of the meadow to check on the status of  the wildflowers. The bloodroot I planted last fall is blooming!  It is one of the very earliest wildflowers to bloom. I love how the leaves curl around, embracing the stem. If you pluck a leaf, the juice at the base of the leaf near the ground oozes out red - hence the name.  I hope this little cluster will expand our into the woods.

Last fall I planted one marsh marigold root, thinking it might be wet enough in the spring for it to survive. Well, this year it may be the only thing I planted there to survive - that spot is standing water this year. I expect to find tadpoles soon!

The third cool thing I found by the big rock was an owl pellet!  I have always been on the lookout for  an owl pellet, but this is the first one I have ever found. OK, if you think about it in a certain way, it is essentially like a hairball a cat coughs up, except that it is amazing because it came from an owl. You can see fur, fragments of bone, what looks like a beetle shell, and a claw in this pellet. Maybe I will dissect it.