Thursday, April 30, 2009

Violets outside my door

The cooler weather of today feels much more comfortable than the sudden shock of hot weather I had earlier in the week. So far, cooler weather hasn’t seemed to slow the galloping greenery that the hotter temperatures instigated. Now that it’s almost May, I suppose nothing will slow it for long.

The latest wildflowers to appear outside the cabin door are these "common blue violets," also known by the names of meadow violet and woods violet, among others. I guess if you see them in a meadow, it’s safe to call them meadow violets, but if you see the same thing in a forest, you can call always those woods violets. Like people, they can live in a lot of different places and can be happy in sun or shade.

These violets are literally right outside my front door by the edge of the last step off the porch, and I have to be careful not to step on them. I have to make sure the dogs don’t clumber over them, too, when we go in or out of the door, because they could care less about pretty little violets. This particular patch has been in the same spot ever since I moved into the cabin. It’s a nice little clump of them, but they are common so it’s not the only one. Common doesn’t mean they aren’t pretty, though.

2 comments:

Grizz………… said...

I love violets—common though they are. As did Napoleon (called Caporal Violette) and Wordsworth:

"A violet by a mossy stone
Half-hidden from the eye!
Fair as a star when only one
Is shining in the sky."

Or in your case, beside a step.

John B. said...

We just got a profusion of violets within the last week, too. I love violets, even if they do tend to take over everything.