A MILD WINTER MEANS EARLY WILDFLOWERS in my beautiful San Juan Islands. Easter weekend brought the first blooms on my back-40 of a perennial favorite, Calypso Orchid, also known (because of its tiny size) as Fairy Slipper.
The fairies that visit Center Island seem a careless lot, leaving more and more of their delicate magenta slippers behind every spring.
The Oregon grape and buttercups are blooming, too, on my rocky knoll. And when a visiting friend, George Moua, and I hopped aboard WeLike and buzzed over for a sack lunch and hike on delightful James Island on Saturday, I was amazed to see a Giant White Fawn Lily in bloom alongside a trail. Usually these starburst-shaped flowers wait until May to add a splash of delight to our forest understory. Another hiker had seen blooming blue Camas, another surprise at this early date. George, a Seattleite who shares my love of the outdoors, was lucky to encounter such early treats on this, his first visit to the San Juans.
Coming soon: The diatom-sized pink flowers of Sea Blush will roll like an ocean wave across the curvaceous landscape of my knoll, accented by ivory florescence of Death Camas (there’s a fun name), royal blue Camas and more white Fawn Lilies. It’s Center Island’s own grand floral parade. Time to get the lawn chairs ready.
Cantwell's Reef 
Wowsers, it’s a cacophony of flowering delights!
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Miss seeing those wildflowers!
And the curvaceous knolls 🙂
Love, Lynn
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Ya know, flowers have to bloom. It’s in their nature. They have no choice in the matter if they want to keep living. And of course, they are pretty only because they need others to care about them. But they are indeed pretty. And there is great pleasure in that.
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