On a less bittersweet note…
One day last week the call of the lady’s slippers was still strong. It usually lasts as long as they do and I try to visit as many as I am able. This is a group that I happened upon two years ago and try to return to them annually now. It also just preceded the grouse encounter.
These and several others are hiding beneath a large spreading hemlock in North Quabbin. I think that at one time there was another large tree that was removed for one reason or another because to shoot this required lying in an old flattened pile of sawdust.
Stephen Gingold Nature Photography Blog 
There’s a welcome familiarity in places where we’ve found a species year after year. By a happy coincidence, this morning I posted a picture from just that kind of place for me, with the species being basket-flowers rather than lady’s slippers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I haven’t seen your post yet, but will be there shortly. Not just a welcome familiarity but also the experience to recognize better possibilities as one makes new compositions.
LikeLike
Wonderful rich colors and a very appealing composition. Terrific work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Jane. I’m glad you enjoyed this.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perhaps because I’ve only seen your portraits of these, and because you’ve often posted single or double flowers, I was surprised to see this group. They’re truly lovely. Do they spread, and do you occasionally see larger colonies?
I attended the North American Prairie Conference this week, and I’m off this weekend to stalk a few pretties myself. I purposely didn’t take my camera on our field trips, and I’m glad I didn’t. When I came home, I put together lists of what we saw. Now I can go back on my own and retrace our route. I may not find all the treasures again, but I’ll find a few — like cinnamon, royal, bracken, and maidenhair ferns. It was an entirely different sort of Texas!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mostly I do see them in single or doubles but do occasionally find them like this group. I guess there are certain conditions that encourage multiples but mostly they are one or two to a plant.
I generally don’t take workshops as I prefer to go out into Nature solo…with a few exceptions. But if I were to take one or two I’d do what you did and consider it scouting for future reference. I once tried to hire a botanist to spend a morning with me. I am not sure if she was uncomfortable with the idea of being alone with a male (she did know me as I had worked in her home and we talked about wildflowers…she introduced me to The New England Wildflower Society…so I thought it wasn’t too awkward to ask. One of these days I think I probably should go on one of Massachusetts Audubon’s flower workshops at one of the sanctuaries. We have cinnamon, sensitive, royal and hay-scented ferns in our yard.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Stunning. What a little chorus line!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That would be a good name for a group…The Lady’s Slippers, eh? This was a great year for them.
LikeLike
Nice! Extra rain maybe? A lot of snow cover?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pretty sure it was the seeming endless rain we had in early spring.
LikeLiked by 1 person