Oh, humble yellow violet

When beechen buds begin to swell,

And woods the blue-bird's warble know,

The yellow violet's modest bell

Peeps from the last year's leaves below. -

Excerpt from

THE YELLOW VIOLET -

by William Cullen Bryant , 1814

Today was a beautiful day in Maryland. After work, I came home to find my husband busy in the garden. He didn't need my help, so I started off on a walk through the woods with George. I was only going to go round the pond, but my husband told me about a tree with an unusual flower that he saw and suggested that I change my lens.

I tried to find the tree he mentioned, and kept going further because I thought maybe it was at the end of the trail he told me to take. Finally, I just gave up looking for it and concentrated on the beauty all around me. While I walked, I thought quiet thoughts, of my sons who are at the beginnings of their adult lives and then of my father, who is getting very near the end of his.

I knew that my father was going to an appointment with his physician today. He lives in California and is being cared for by my sister, Ginny and her husband Jay.

My father will be 90 years old this August. I posted about him once, in this post. My father is a wonderful man, and quite handsome! But he's getting more confused and now suddenly, not well at all, and I just want to be near him. I want to help him feel better like he did for me when I was a child. I want to help my sister and her husband and share the burden of caring for him. They have some help, but I want to be there, too.

I plan on flying out and spending a week in June when school is finished for the year.

Anyway, I was out walking and suddenly, I realized that I was walking in the woods and I haven't done that since March 26 -- the day before my knee surgery! And it didn't hurt very much! However, I realized that now I had to walk all the way back, so I suddenly stopped and right then I looked down and there, among the old leaves and the new shoots trying to push up, was a yellow violet. I don't see them much and I can't remember the last time I ever noticed them. When I looked closer, I saw there were several yellow violets. So I got down on the ground (after checking for poison ivy) and started taking pictures, crawling around from violet to violet. I didn't have my macro lens with me, but this lens was fine on the setting I had it.

George was with me and because it was a little warm today, he had his tongue hanging out again. He'd already been on a good walk with his dad, so this was his second of the afternoon.

When I came home, I looked up yellow violets and found that they arrive in April and thrive in a dry woodsy setting. And I also found that William Cullen Bryant wrote a poem about them; the first quatrain is above.

Hope you enjoy the beautiful violets and this tree I came across that wanted to be in the blog. It was whispering to me while I was walking by and I just had to oblige.