Shocking new sightings at the Cloister

Fun at the Cloister at Three Creeks.  Our guest host introduces some new findings.

Signs of spring, he declared.  Well, I suppose so ... heavily 'processed', however.  

In the 'this is no sh*t' department, we did have some new blooms opening today.  This first one I can't identify.  It's a very common Oak-Hickory understory plant in dry settings, shoots up quickly to reach 18 inches to two feet high, but the flowers are pretty inconspicuous, though also quite unusual.

Today I spotted the first emerging May Apples.  These umbrella-leaved plants are not common around the Cloister.  The deer love them, and so in places they have been browsed back to near-extermination.

Rue Anemone was the real star wildflower among those appearing for the first time.  Here are two views.  Such a delicate looking plant with such a showy bloom:

Found a fairly rare nearly pure-white violet blooming:

And chanced upon a cluster of round-leaved yellow violets putting on a great show.

Always love the mosses after a good soaking rain that fell last night:

Then there was this Tolkienesque discovery:  The evil fortress tower of Barad-dûr.

And finally, though I featured a whole field of them in the video, I'll further celebrate the one-month anniversary of the very first spring flower sighting at the Cloister--the Spring Beauty.  Here's an especially colorful specimen:

That's about it for today, April 1st, from the Cloister at Three Creeks.