flowers that bloom in the spring

The windsheild wiper blades were fried, and as I tore through the downpours, I couldn't see much. Finally got them switched out, and then the weather shifted to 40 mph gusts. But yesterday was lamblike, as the queen of Alabama wildflowers led us up the foothills of Cheha Mountain (tallest in the state at 2,000-something feet) on the Nubbin Creek Trail in the Talladega National Forest. Looking for wildflowers is different than birdwatching, although one also carries binoculars and writes species down in a little book. The wildflowers are fixed in place, so eventually you can always see what the experts are pointing at. We walked through forests of blueberry trees, mountain laurel and oakleaf hydrangias (the only place they are native). Things were just leafing out. But then, with sharp eyes, you could spot a trailing arbutus, or "mayflower", with tiny, waxy white or pink flowers, the yellow face of a halberd violet or a tiny purple iris just coming into bloom. And after five hours of solitary hiking (and one inadvertant dip in a whitewater creek) communing with the wild, it was a shock to see a clipped and cultivated white standard poodle headed towards us down the trail. Woof.