On the Path June 1st, 2015

I hadn't been on the path for a while. The Black Locust trees at the start of the path are blooming, with many of the seed pods from last year still clinging to the branches. 
  The flowers are pea-like.

Dames's Rocket. Other common names include Wild Blue Phlox, Woodland Phlox, Wild Sweet William, Summer Lilac, Sweet Rocket and Mother-of-the-Evening—some appealing names. I wonder who started them. And when. 

They add a welcome white, pink and mauve to the ditches on the path.

It always adds to my walk if I see one of nature's creatures. There were two for a few seconds. The other one was much shier and he quickly slipped into the nearby bush.

Dog-strangling Vine (Swallowwort) is blooming now. It's an unwelcome invasive that spreads like wildfire. The tiny, burgundy, star-shaped blossoms are pretty though.

It's already started it's habit of twisting around itself and anything else it meets. If you try to walk through some patches of it, it catches around your ankles. I can easily imagine it strangling a dog—if the dog got tangled in a bad patch of it.

It's time to be careful in the woods again. Not just because of the ticks we're being warned about, but because Poison Ivy is going strong now. 

Look for the three leaves as they always tell us. Two are 'joined at the hip' on the stem and the third is on a short stem at right-angles to the other two. The leaves tend to be irregular on many plants—not symmetrical. Some leaves have quite smooth edges, others are jagged.

At their earliest stage they're often reddish—though I don't think that's always the case. I'm not sure on that point.

To be on the safe side, heed the little rhyme that warns us:
 "Leaves of three, let it be."

Solomon's Seal with its clothesline of buds—an escapee from someone's garden.

Birch tree catkins before they've even thought of opening. The Birch has been known as the "Giving Tree" since pioneer days, because of its many medicinal uses.

'Til next time.

- fini -