I spent part of the Memorial Day weekend enjoying a good long walk on the Rockingham Recreational Trail, one of the many rail trails gracing New Hampshire. How good it felt to shake off the recent rains!
I saw plenty of cyclists. I’ll bet they were moving too fast to see what was in bloom along the way. I’d never before seen so many ladyslipper flowers in a single outing. They were a deeper pink than the ones I’ve seen earlier in the season – dark enough to show the flower’s delicate veining that’s not discernible in paler blossoms.
Ladyslippers are ephemeral, like nearly every other spring flower. They’ll be gone in a couple of weeks, re-emerging next year or the year after. But what treasures they are, while they last! There’s no point in trying to cut or transplant them. They simply don’t survive such things. I have to take them on their own terms, right where they are.
Excerpted from Braided Trails.
Ellen Kolb 