Mud season in Vermont means not hiking on trails for the most part.  So I’ve been doing a lot of short walks through woods and on logging roads in Camel’s Hump State Park/Forest.  I love getting out at this time of year to see the spring ephemerals, wildflowers that bloom for only a short time before the trees and other brush leaf out above them.  In addition to the flowers, there are gushing streams and cascades from snowmelt, cellar holes of old farms and homesteads, and later in the spring, black flies.

Bloodroot, named for the appearance of bleeding when the leaves are torn

Bellwort, aka merrybells

Trout lilies, named for the trout-like speckled appearance of their leaves

Jack-in-the-pulpit

Red trillium

Painted trillium

Red eft, the terrestrial form of an eastern newt

Red elderberry

Foam flower

Rose twisted-stalk

Spring beauty