a morning walk

since the weather has turned warmer, i have been taking a morning walk through our woods, even on a morning like today with a light rain falling. it is amazing how fast spring changes things from day to day. the flowers blooming yesterday are gone, but others have jumped up to replace them. i have found beauty at every turn, and not just in the wildflowers. i wish you could be with me to hike on our paths. until then, i will share my walk with you in pictures.

S discovered "raccoon tree" last year. we now pay him a visit every time we pass by. i am sure he wonders why we must wake him from his comfortable nap!

this tree fungus remind me of a sunrise. the colors and lines are so beautiful.

i enjoyed listening to this wild turkey this morning! he was making quite a racket gobbling to his girl friends. mark has seen a few turkeys around, but this is the first one that i have spotted. mark put a baby monitor out on the deck so we can listen to the birds sing (or gobble, as the case may be) in the morning when it is still too cool to open the windows.

how's that for re-purposing the baby monitor! *smile*

such diversity and uniqueness in nature!

at first glance the woods seem dreary and brown, but i found such beauty there this morning.
these oak leaves look as if they have been dipped in bronze.

watch your step!

i love the perfect geometry in this little snail.

the morning drizzle left sparkling jewels on the clover.

everyday gift: seeing God's perfect creativity and beauty in nature

what a mighty, mighty savior you are!

What a mighty, mighty savior you are!

What a mighty, mighty savior you are!

You can wash away my sin,

You can cleanse my heart within,

What a mighty, mighty savior you are!

everyday gift: the voices of children singing God's praise

easter reflections

on the floor of the woods, everything is brown. the leaves that fell in the autumn are covering the black earth, crumbling and returning to the soil. fallen branches are decaying...
...but out of this death, a shoot springs up. a single green leaf wraps around a stem, almost like a shroud, but instead of holding a corpse, it holds new life, a single white bud. it makes me think of the shroud of Jesus, wrapped around his crucified body, but instead of keeping death, it brought forth new life when He was raised on easter! praise God for his resurrection power that raised the Son from the dead and can breathe new life into a sinner's heart, like mine.

...just as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father,
we too may live a new life.
Romans 6:4b

Bloodroot

Sanguinaria candadensis

everyday gift: new life springing up in a dead heart because of Jesus

snow trillium

the other night we went crunching through the blanket of leaves in the woods. mark was planting B's christmas tree (she insisted on having a LIVE tree in her room at christmas in protest to our new artificial tree. her dad was a softy and bought her the tree. and now it is planted on the edge of the woods. i hope it makes it, but it is not looking too good right now). anyway, i tagged along and was looking for birds and critters when i noticed little patches of white flowers blooming...

i recognized the three leaf and petal pattern as trillium, but it was not the prairie trillium that i have commonly seen. that plant has a brownish red flower, is much taller, and blooms later in spring.

excited by my sighting, i did some google research. i found the best information on the illinois wildflower website. there i learned that its latin name is trillium nivale and it is commonly called snow trillium because it blooms so early in the spring when there is often still snow on the ground. according to the distribution map, it does not even grow in our county or the surrounding counties; other places in illinois it is uncommon. it is considered an "indicator species of high quality upland woods." i was pleased to read this about our little woodland home. :o)

everyday gift: a discovery