Dwarf Birch

The next day it was spring!  Warm wind, hot sun.  The first tiny green leaves at Ginty Creek!

The dwarf birch is always the first to show new green.

Spring Flowers

And there were dandelions.

And tiny scentless violets

And soopolallie in bloom.

The tiny green  soopolallie flowers will make very juicy orange berries that are loved by bears.  The plant is also known as soap berry.  First nations people used to whip them up into a froth – settlers dubbed the concoction Indian Ice Cream.  Most white people find the berries too bitter but I love the taste, especially if they have been nipped by frost.  It is not common to find them that way, however, as they ripen early and the bears love them.

And finally there were lovely displays of the cerulean jacob’s ladder