Friday, April 15, 2011
Pictures from the Virginia spring
I am on a long weekend in Virginia south of the James, riding a bike and enjoying the woods. I took a few pictures yesterday. Regular readers will notice that, apart from the butterflies, they are not unlike the pics I shot the same time last year.
The family home, now owned by my brother...
In the front yard, a vast oak, older than the United States.
April woodlands. The green is coming, but still winter enough that you can still see for a distance.
Acres and acres of blue bells!
Any botanists out there who can identify this? Opening suggestion: A "fiddle head" fern.
More later.
8 Comments:
By 
pam, at
Fri Apr 15, 11:57:00 AM:
By 
, at
Fri Apr 15, 12:37:00 PM:
What beauuutiful pics! Downloaded them. I download most of your pics and use them on my desktop Background. They are all beautiful!
The Blue Bell pic is just fabulous.
Thanks.
By John Cunningham, at
Fri Apr 15, 03:40:00 PM:
the fiddlehead is the new fern growth coming out, not a separate species in
its own right. one would have to check
the leaf shape, colors, etc to narrow
down the species. fiddleheads are
great sauteed in butter.
By The Leading Wedge, at
Sat Apr 16, 03:44:00 AM:
That would be about my dream house.. but it's a big mowing job.
By , at
Sun Apr 17, 04:07:00 PM:
Ahh, not so far from our river place, from which I just arrived to resume my place in the madding crowd.
Are fiddleheads good sauteed as you say, Mr. Cunningham? They're abundant right now. Safe, too?
Leatherneck
By Brian Schmidt, at
Sun Apr 17, 11:03:00 PM:
Probably a sword fern, but not sure.
I've heard it's best to scrape the outsides, parboil them quickly, and then grill. Should be safe regardless though.
By Brian Schmidt, at
Sun Apr 17, 11:05:00 PM:
On second thought, maybe I should follow up my safety comment and suggest just trying a little first, instead of fixing yourself a heaping bowl sauteed fiddleheads.
By , at
Tue Apr 26, 01:48:00 AM:
Old victorian mansions always look so nice and classical
