Joe's Run

This is one of the most beautiful times of the year on Joe's Run, the hollow that leads up to my ridge. Wildflowers bloom in abundance on this otherwise unremarkable one-lane road. You need to drive slowly to see them at this time of year since most of the flowers in bloom are tiny, delicate and almost lost in the leaf mold and grasses along the road.

Earliest of the spring flowers is coltsfoot, usually out by the end of February. This year it wait until mid-March and even today I found some still in bloom:

Blooming right along with the coltsfoot were the spring beauties, and this year they are creating a veritable carpet alongside the road. These little flowers have a stripe of deep pink along each petal, difficult to see unless you look closely. (I am finding that my camera, bought last year, does not provide me with nearly the detail my old camera offered at less pixels. I am not happy about that.). Heal-All provided a nice counterpoint of purple to the spring beauties' shy color.

Heal-All blanketed a bank along the road with its rich tones too:

Here Joe's Run's right and left forks run together to form the last mile of the run to Mill Creek.

When the WV State Roads people renamed roads for 9-1-1, they changed the names from Left Fork of Joe's Run and Right Fork of Joe's Run to Joe's Run (for the Left Fork) and Farmer's Drive (for the right fork). No one who lives here is happy about that--we still call it left and right fork. Historians years from now won't like it either when they try to figure out where places were. Ah, progress--sometimes it seems to complicate and flatten life.

Further up on the right fork, the trillium are just starting to make an appearance. This particular bank is usually covered with them.

And even further up the road, a patch of bright blue caught my eye. It turned out to be a patch of violets. I've noticed that violets are making a strong showing this year. That suits me fine because they are certainly one of the prettiest of the wild flowers.