Category Archives: Spring

Orioles at Orange Slices, Bird in the Chimney

Not the sports team, but the oriole birds have been daily visitors for about a week now. Orioles are a species that had been on my sighting wish list since we moved to the Ozarks. They migrate through our area on their way to Maryland (I suppose they’re going to Maryland-isn’t that where the team’s […]

Enjoy Nature: Phlox and Fiddleheads

Here’s a little inspiration to get outside on this beautiful sunny day and enjoy nature. Phlox is blooming and casting joyful purple splashes all around the Wild Ozark hills and woods, and the fiddleheads are unfurling. About Wild Ozark Wild Ozark is a nature farm. Mostly we grow rocks. I use those rocks and some […]

Finding the Horses on a Drizzly Easter Sunday Morning

On Sundays I generally sleep late. The alarm goes off every other day at 0500, but on Sundays I have no alarm at all and my body takes full advantage of that fact. I do not ordinarily wake up planning to go off on a walkabout mission finding the horses. Finding the horses is never […]

Things I’ve Heard but Never Seen- Spring Peepers

How many things have you heard but never seen? One that confounds me every year is a little frog. Today was a very windy and warm day, warm enough to make it easy to work up a sweat while helping Rob with firewood this morning. I can’t remember a sweaty February day before. The peepers […]

Paw Paw Hiding the Hickory

About Wild Ozark Wild Ozark is a nature farm. Mostly we grow rocks. I use those rocks and some of the herbs to make earth pigments and watercolor paints. We also grow native clay that I use for paint and various other things. And then there are the trees. We grow lots of trees. My […]

April Spring flowers in the Ginseng Habitat

Lots of flowers in the ginseng habitat right now. The following are just a sample. Wild Ginger If you don’t mind getting down on the ground, you can see the wild ginger (Asarum canadense) blooming. Flowers are usually just below the leaf litter at the base of the stems. Mayapple The mayapples are blooming too. […]

Early Spring Plants of the Woodlands in Madison County Arkansas

I got a late start photographing the early spring plants this year (2017). They started without me and I’ve already missed some of them. These are some of the plants unfurling and blooming on April 1 in the woodland habitats here at Wild Ozark. Early Spring Plants This late afternoon shot of fern fiddleheads is […]

What’s Blooming at the end of May?

Wild Ozark plants blooming at the end of May I took a little walkabout yesterday to photograph some of the flowers that are setting berries, blooming, or getting ready to bloom right now. Yesterday’s post highlighted the orchid I’d been waiting to see bloom. The ginseng pics were also added to the “Ginseng Habitat Through the […]

Water Over the Bridge-Videos

When you can hear the roar of the wet-weather waterfall from the house, you know the water’s up. If you can see the waterfall from the front porch, it’s a fair bet the creek is way over the bridge. When the creek is this much into the driveway… Yep. Looks like I’ll be staying home another day […]

Ginseng in mid- to late May

Pictures of Ginseng in May I took a few pictures today for those of you wondering how the ginseng looks during mid- to late May. I’ll post a link to them over on the Ginseng Habitat Through the Seasons page, too. For those of you who enjoy nature sketching, I have a sketch of ginseng […]

A Woodland Habitat – Dragons among the Nettles and Cohosh

There’s a particular woodland habitat at the far corner of our property that I love. The variety of plants that grow there is amazing. It’s the perfect place for American ginseng, but those plants have nearly been extirpated by diggers foraging the hillsides of our area. It’s too far from the house for me to […]

Sun Splashes, Tree Silhouettes and Flowering Woodland Herbs

The day was dreary for the most part, but just before sunset the sky brightened. And so I went out with the camera and managed to get a few photos of some of the flowering woodland herbs in the ginseng habitat before it got too dark. Diversions While Checking the Mail I’d gone to check […]

Solomon’s Seal Unfurling

Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum) There’s a nice patch of Solomon Seal at the front of the driveway that was so choked out last summer that I don’t think any of them got a chance to bloom. I was afraid they might not come back after that. And I wasn’t sure exactly which spot it was where […]

Arnold’s First Rooster Crow

Arnold is a Fall chicken. He hatched from an egg, along with his three nestlings way back in October (I think). The clutch of eggs that had hatched shortly before his fell prey to a large black rat snake. You might remember my FB post about that. It takes about six months from hatch to […]

PawPaw Flower Bud

The PawPaw tree is a ginseng companion plant, or ginseng indicator plant. It often grows where ginseng grows, but is also often found in areas with more sunlight. Here at Wild Ozark it is a fairly good indicator of great ginseng habitat, but it also grows prolifically on the edge between forest and field, marking […]

Sights and Sounds of Spring

The sounds of spring fills the night air now. Spring Peepers are calling! The only visible signs of spring so far as I can see are the bits of wild onion grass growing with a bit more spright than usual. And the chickweed is making my garden look like it already needs to be weeded. […]