Satin Flower and Osoberry

You may recall I went up to Highrock Park a week or so ago in search of the earliest of indigenous spring flowers here, the Satin Flower. There were none visible then nor at my next visit a few days ago. But today, there they were, nodding delicately in the breeze. Spring is so late this year that I expect the spring flowers will be treading on each other's heels rather than appearing in the fairly measured progression they follow in normal years. One truly balmy spring day will do it. Below is an impressionistic treatment of another of the earliest native spring blooms I saw today, the Osoberry or Indian Plum.

March Choices!

As I wrote yesterday, "Every year I put together a calendar for friends and family, of photos I have published on this blog for the last year or so. However, it's always difficult to make decisions about which photos to use. I sam hoping visitors to this blog will help out. Every day for the next few weeks I will publish two or three photos from a given month and hope that comments and choices made by visitors will help me make a final decision which photos to use in this year's calendar. As an incentive, I will offer an online downloadable/printable file of the calendar to anyone who helps me make a choice."

Thanks to everyone who has given me their opinions so far, and it really helps when you give reasons for your preference.

Below are my favorite March 2016 photos: Which one do you prefer?

Giant White Fawn Lily (This flower and the Satinflowers pictured below are both wildflowers that are native to this part of the world.)

Inner Harbour Looking West from Songhees Point

Satinflower

Satin Flower

Here is one of our very earliest spring wildflowers, the delicate little Satin Flower (Olsynium douglasii). While these are not really rare, I've only ever seen them in small isolated patches. These ones pop up in the same spots every year near the summit of Highrock Park in Vic West. The flowers seem almost too heavy for the slender stems and jostle around in the slightest breeze, making them very difficult to photograph.