Wildflowers

When I was a little girl, I would get up before any one else on Mother's Day morning and head for the woods behind our home.  There, I would pick an assortment of the prettiest, most colorful wildflowers I could find to have ready for my mother first thing in the morning.  My favorite addition for this Mother's Day bouquet was Virginia Bluebell.  The bluebells always seemed to peak just at the time I needed them to add their periwinkle blue beauty to my wildflower bouquet.  They only grew in one place in our woods in a grove near the big creek.  It was quite a hike to get to the patch of them, but, by the time I made my way back home, I'd collected a full assortment of flowers that never failed to bring a smile to my Mom.

It was my mother who introduced me to the wonders of nature.  Up until she passed away in 2003, we walked the trails of those woods together, always quietly sharing the beauty surrounding us, often surprised by the sighting of a new bird, insect or flower. 

The woods surrounding the cabin my husband and I share is a dry, hilly location, so we don't find water loving bluebells here.  Yesterday, Kevin pointed out that our mountain laurel was just beginning to bloom, its showy, white, bell shaped flowers delicately decorated with pink strikingly vivid against the green background of hardwoods and pine.  I'm sure my mother would have loved these flowers added into her Mother's Day bouquet, too.