A Walk on the Wild Side!

This was a Granddaughter weekend and four of them were here. The four middle ones to be exact. The two older ones are usually working or spending time with their friends and that's alright. That's what they are supposed to be doing at their age. The youngest was with her step grandma enjoying learning to ride a horse. And that is alright too, as we have to share. (I guess)

Papa was busy helping his brother plant corn. That left us free to have an adventure. After a nice lunch out, we decided to take a walk in the woods just south of our town. These woods, about 20 acres, are owned by The University of Illinois and are left completely natural except for a few semi cleared paths.



Our adventure starts.

There are always one or two who like to lead the way. :)

We were on a search for wildflowers. I was inspired by Lisa's post on wildflowers found in her area. These are wild phlox and the woods was covered in them.

The ones in more sun were lighter in color.

We found yellow violets! I would love to have some of these in my garden.

As well as the purple ones which are Illinois State Flower.

And a butterfly! Surely a survivor from last year this is a female Spicebush Swallowtail. The females have blue hind wings where the males have more green. At any rate, we were thrilled to see such a beauty.

And other wild creatures were found. This slug on a walnut was the subject of much discussion and wanting to bring it home with us. We left it where we found it. :)

Earth worms are wild creatures-aren't they??

A stink bug? We couldn't be sure.

Deer tracks were found and again were the subject of much discussion. The mud made for perfect impressions of these and what we thought were raccoon tracks. Also, we saw a huge paw print that was either of a very large dog or as Papa said later, could have been a wolf's tracks.

A very small pond was found and....

proved to be very interesting and...

full of new life. The girls tried scooping up the tadpoles to get a feel of them.

Oh no! A misstep and into the mud! Bottled water saved the day and was used to rinse mud off both feet and flip flops.

Jack-in-the-Pulpits were blooming.

Such a pretty sight.

May Apples were not blooming yet but their foliage was a brilliant chartreuse.

Someone decided she needed to collect walnuts for our squirrels at home.

I told the girls this was a gaul, but now am not sure. Any ideas?

These will soon be in full bloom. What a mass of them!

Trout lilies or Adder's Tongue are so delicate. We only found one blooming but it's beauty has us going back in a few days to see that whole area in bloom.

This is the leaf of a tree that...

had these almost spent blooms. I couldn't tell the girls what tree it was. Does anyone know?

I thought this a weed, but the girls said it was another wildflower. Does kind of look like a wild cleome doesn't it?

A small glade that is perfect for picture taking at the end of our walk on the wild side!