First flowers of the woods

I always look forward to the "firsts" of the season--the first calling frog, the first hungry hummingbird, the first sunning turtle.
And when the winter has cast the woods in brown for so long, I eagerly search for the first wildflowers of spring.
Those bright, joyful faces peeking through with such pure color. Yet unmuddied by rain. Their tender freshness lovely against the weathered leaves of the forest floor. The new life born of old.
It helps me mark time.

We lingered along the trail at Lake Katharine, finding ourselves in the midst of them--and wondered how it was that we alone enjoyed them there.
A man hurried past and called back over his shoulder to ask why I carried a camera.
Perhaps it is his habit to walk these trails each day. The lovely faces looking back at him now so commonplace that he does not need to pause to take them in.
Or maybe it is that he hurries past, never knowing they watch from beside the trail.

Virginia Spring Beauties

Round-lobed Hepatica

Bloodroot

Dutchmen's-breeches