Shadbush, LH

This has been a funny spring. After essentially a non-winter, the first warm weather arrived unnaturally early but, no sooner had it settled on the area and got the amphibians going and the plants out of park than it departed. Periods of cold swooped down from the north and it was beginning to look like true spring weather wouldn't grace us until June. Well, not to worry. Today was almost balmy, perfect trekking weather, and to gentle my path, the Shadbush started to bloom. Members of the Amelanchier clan—this year, I'm going to put learning its species name on my to-do list—have more than a dozen common names, and the one I use honors the fact that the bloom time of the shrub coincides, more or less, with the arrival of that fabled fish, the Shad, in favored local streams. My angler friends tell me that there are rumors of Shad running upstream from their ocean haunts, and if the fish and the fishermen look at their steamside surroundings, they'll certainly enjoy a floral welcome. No telling if the weather will finally be rolling out the true spring carpet.