Here in my part of the world we have experienced a warmer than normal February. This means we are looking at early spring conditions and lots of wildflowers already. For those of you who live where you are buried in snow or are having super cold days, forgive me! My kids live in New York state and they have been frozen most of February and I understand how long your winter seems to be this year.
Look at my wildflower photos as a breath of spring that will be coming your way before too much longer.
The above flower is one of our normal early wildflowers and it greeted us alongside our normal hiking trail. This pretty flower is the Hound’s tongue.
We also have this beauty starting to bloom along the trail and it always marks the beginning of our wildflower season. The Sierra shooting star is one of my very favorites and is going to be featured in my nature journal later this week!
Now we are jumping to a different habitat…the California coastal trail near Muir Beach in Marin County. We had the chance to visit there last weekend and I snapped this pretty yellow flower during a hike.
Here is another flower we saw quite a bit of on our day at the coast.
We also made it to Muir Woods and we had a great hike under the redwoods. The redwood sorrel was everywhere…getting ready to bloom I think. Look for an entry on Muir Woods National Monument soon here on the blog.
There is nothing so wonderful as a month of early spring wildflowers to enjoy with family and friends. As the season progresses we will no doubt enjoy many more days wandering the trails looking at flowers. I know the names of quite a few flowers but there are some that I need to learn so my field guide will be in my pack and my nature journal will get some new entries as I continue to become friends with the wildflowers of California.
Have you been out looking in your woods yet?