Michigan Wildflowers Springing Up - April 10, 2015

Allegan County, Michigan

 Marie and I stopped at the park in Hamilton first, it was only 37 degrees and windy.  The snow is mostly gone but we did see a bit here and there.  The Rabbit River was the color of coffee with cream.

 Next stop our Happy Boots place, nice wet woods and Sand Creek.  Sand Creek was high but not over the banks.  

 
We found lots of Skunk Cabbage, 

and a few Marsh Marigold blooming.  We saw Golden Saxifrage blooming, with its tiny red-orange flowers.

We wandered for almost two hours through the swampy woods. That was fun! 

 It was still cold and cloudy so we didn't have much hope of seeing many wildflowers blooming.  We didn't even hear any frogs yet.  So we decided to go to Hepatica Hill along the Kalamazoo River.  Even if we don't find wildflowers we can have a good walk.

We got to the hill to find hepatica was blooming, sort of but it needed a little sunshine.

We walked on with plans to stop here on our way back.  We stood for awhile looking down at the river.  

Still cloudy but then the sun started to peek out.  Little bits of blue sky.  When we got back to the hepatica they were wide open reaching for the sun.  Some were white, some a deep purple.  Their stems were very hairy and they seemed so delicate.  But there they were blooming, with the snow barely gone and a cold wind blowing.

Marie sat with her books doing some research and enjoying the day, while I looked around - being amazed at the change in the little flowers since the sun came out.  Nice!
It was time to head home and on the way we stopped along 133rd Avenue, still in Allegan County.  We were surprised to find Trout Lily blooming.

 And some Spring Beauty!

Then we heard frogs. What a great spring day.