Oh what a difference a month makes. The trees are finally wearing their fresh new leaf outfits, unblemished yet by insects or dust, and the view heading up the hill past the garden/barn spot is now an emerald rhapsody of dappled greens kept sparkling like jewels by the steady spring rains. I am curious to know what wildflowers have bloomed and gone by the time we get there in late May.
There’ll be time enough in the near future, I know, to explore for myself the myriad inhabitants of Kentucky forest, creek and meadow as each season takes center stage; for now I must content myself with doing homework, learning what I can from books and the internet to identify grasses, trees, weeds and flowers I am as yet unfamiliar with.
My native landscaping knowledge was of High Country western flora – Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona. As a twenty-something citizen naturalist I knew every shrub, tree and flower around the northern Rocky Mountain region by their proper latin names and common tags as well; now I am an illiterate pre-schooler as I walk through my fields and forest, yet to learn the alphabet, much less read the book of diversity that surrounds me. It will come, though, in time, that familiarity.
Two weeks from now I’ll be in this picture, clad in muddy work boots and jeans, doing farm work in the warm May sun. Two years from now will be the last Spring on the farm I’ll have to miss in its entirety, the last time I’ll ever have to wonder what mystery wildflowers spring to life on the forest floor in the month of May in south-central Kentucky. Time enough, ’till then, to read and learn. The flowers and the jeweled leaves will wait for me.
Thistledog's Farm 
