a beauty-full heart...

at the front of our house are two large butterfly bushes, or at least that is the colloquial name i know them by. apparently bees don't care about names like that though, as this week those bushes seem to be humming steadily every time i pass them. i was just outside trying to catch some of the big fuzzy bees with my camera, but my arrival seemed to signal an opportunity for little bee planets to orbit around my head, rather than sit still for a moment so i could snap a photo. so let's look at forest flowers instead, shall we?

while in most cases the leaves of the plants and trees are just vibrant chartreuse sprouts at the end of branches right now, the flowers are really in their prime. the swamp lanterns (or skunk cabbage) are like a yellow carpet in the boggy areas, odd-shaped yellow blooms and lush foliage brightening up the forest (and filling it with their heady aroma). the trilliums have taken over too, little white three-pointed butterflies alighting on every green surface. i am looking forward to when they start to turn pink as they age - there are a few in my yard as well that i can keep an eye on. the bleeding hearts are still taking their time, but there were a few pink flowers here and there. but on this particular walk i was looking for a particular bloom, and then i walked around the bend in the trail and saw this:

oh, fawn lilies! i feel so melodramatic to see that i gasped out loud and my heart swelled a little at the first swath of pink stars nestled in the moss. but i was so excited to see them - i have been waiting eagerly, and their beauty never fails to capture me. the next few twists in the trail revealed hundreds more, of both the pink and white varieties (including many that were white with lovely pink stripes. the tricky part about photographing fawn lilies is that they face down to the ground, and are only a few inches tall. it's hard to get down on your belly to snap a shot without crushing dozens more. i did my best by venturing into the patch by navigating a fallen log, and using the blind shooting technique (where i hold my camera low and don't look through the viewfinder). of course then a crew of dogs on a walk came crashing through the scene to say hello, blissfully ignorant of the carnage they left in their wake. ah, well.

i could have spent hours in that patch of blooms, but real life called me back. and a new beast is taking shape today - more info tomorrow!