A Walk in Another Woods

I was headed to the Lake yesterday, to see what had changed since the last time I was there. I took a different road, and was so glad that I did. Because as I was driving down that road, I noticed a kiosk and some cars parked. I was curious, so I stopped. It turned out that it was the Whiting Road Nature Preserve, consisting of 240 acres of land that was purchased by the town to be preserved in its present state.

Naturally, I decided that this was a better destination than the Lake, so I pulled out my camera and started hiking. Thank goodness I had my walking sneakers on. There are lovely paths throughout, which are very easy to walk on.



They're not trying to return the area to a native state, and it is just full of two very invasive plants.

Wild Honeysuckle - though this one was a very vibrant pink.



Wild Roses - The place is loaded with these and, while here at home, I am fighting a constant, and losing, battle against them, I want to make sure to come back and take a walk when they are in bloom. The smell ought to be wonderful. I also want to see them in bloom because there seem to be several different types of these roses, and I think I'll be better able to tell when they come into flower.



And, oh the growing things. There was this plant. It had no flowers, but the leaves were the most attractive things.



In the deeper parts of the woods, there were many kinds of ferns.





And, my goodness, the flowers that I found.

Fleabane



Double Celendine Poppy



Dame's Rockets



Mustard



Herb Robert



Ground Ivy



Woodruff



Wild Strawberry



Toothwort



Star of Bethlehem



Remember, I'm a novice at this identification thing. So, if you find anything you think I have wrong, please let me know and I'll change it.

Of course, there are a couple of mystery plants. This first is just budding. It looks, though you can't see it in the pictures very well, like the flowers will have a pink or red color.




And, there was this lovely bush everywhere. At first, I thought it was just more of the wild honeysuckle, but as I looked closer, I could see that it wasn't. The flowers hang from the underside of the bush, like Solomon's Seal, but the flower shape is different, and the plant is woody.



I spent a couple of hours just meandering along a few of the many pathways. There are more to explore. The pathway is multiple use, but no motorized vehicles are permitted. I met a few other walkers, some runners and a bicyclist. They were all smiling, and quite friendly. I also found shod hoofprints on the wetter parts of the path, so I know that someone is riding there. Biggggg hoofprints, maybe a draft. For sure, I'll be going back as the year progresses, to see what new things I can find.