Blooming Bloodroot at Riverside Park!

April 12 2011  A fun afternoon at Riverside Park with my Favorite daughter and my favorite dog.  It was a warm and sunny day, Tuesday, grocery shopping was done, the  house pretty much clean.  When it is a nice weather day if you can get outside you should.

As soon as we got on the trail we found Spring Beauty blooming! 

Purple Cress was just coming out.  Then Betsy discovered blooming Bloodroot!

Tilly the Oreo Princess was glad for a refreshing swim.

We walked to the point and back staying to the trail.  Just before getting to the car, Betsy spotted Bird's-eye Speedwell, I know it is a non-native, and it is a lawn weed, but it is one of the prettiest little flowers I have ever seen.  What a color!

  Thank you Betsy and Tilly for that wonderful quest of spring wildflowers!

Aman, Aman

So this is the continued adventure from April 2, 2012  remember we first spent ~ five hours at Grand River Park, (see the last post) and since it is snowing right now, April 10, it is either time to do housework or work on pictures and the blog.  Really I am doing both of those two things, anyway...  On to Aman, it was already after 1pm so we only spent about 1 1/2 hours here but it was worth the stop.

We walked to the northern bridge, I was especially interested in how the Virginia Bluebells were coming along.  But first we checked out Sand Creek. 

We were seeing scads of wildflowers, these are mostly anemones, False Rue and maybe Wood.

 Yellow Trout Lily, this plant has neat leaves.

Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) Barberry Family

 Dutchman's Breeches

This is Early Meadow-Rue (Thalictrum dioicum) Buttercup Family.  It always is hard for me to get a decent picture of this plant.  The upper portion of the plant is like decorative ornaments dangling in the wind.  Below is a closer shot.  Sort of neat how the flowers droop from that little cap.

Bug alert!  One spider and one beetle coming up!

 Spider

                               Beetle

One of the last blooming Hepatica of the year, but the leaves of this plant last until next year and the leaves can be very pretty all by themselves.

Near the creek are thousands of Virginia Bluebell (Mertinsia Virginica) Borage Family, this one had buds and one flower just opening.

Small group of Virginia Bluebell

Virginia Bluebells getting ready to bloom at Aman Park, Ottawa County Michigan.

 Cool little tree starting out.

Bridge over Sand Creek  

 Many violets, different colors...That was it for Monday April 2nd,  but wait for it...

Lucky me, Betsy asked if I wanted to go to Aman on Friday, it was perfect weather.  So here is Aman Park four days later, April 6th.

More blue in the sky...

 One of the few Bloodroot still blooming,

 Some sort of long spurred violet,

 Spring Beauty looking very pink,

 Trillium by the hundreds,

A hill of a hundred trillium,

 Virginia Bluebell more open than on Monday,

 Virginia Bluebell

 Sand Creek at Aman Park

Virginia Bluebell

 Buttercup

 Miterwort  (Mitella Diphylla) Saxifrage Family has tiny flowers with five delicate fringes giving it a dainty appearance.

 Miterwort with its opposite sessile leaves.

 Sand Creek from the southern bridge at Aman Park,

 So that about wraps up Aman, Aman.  Notice the Red Bud tree near the bridge, more about Red Bud next time. Thanks for stopping by.