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| White Trillium in bloom at Oakwood. 5/11/23 dwm |
In the Nature Preserve on the University Woods campus of Oakwood Village, residents and the horticulturist have worked to restore native species of flora and fauna.
Spring puts on a show while everything wakes. I caught a glimpse of a male Wood duck last week, half of a breeding pair nesting in box created for the beautiful birds.
I'm told a week earlier a family of geese walked from the vernal pond in the preserve down the street several blocks to a larger pond where there were more resources.
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| Wake-Robin Trillium front & center. |
In bright sunshine the white flowers seem to jump off a bed of green leaves. While the forest has several good size patches the blooms don't last long.
They kick off a season of growth for trees, animals, and flowers that bloom in their own time.
The preserve is a tidy 9-acres in the middle of developed block guarded by a busy city street on the north.
Before the trees have all their leaves basking in the sun, the floor of the preserve gets plenty of light. In another week or two it will be a different story.
During Covid-19, I heard so many stories from residents about the importance of the preserve that I started calling it Nine Acres of Paradise.
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| Idyllic spring by the pond. |
The pond is supplied by snow melt and rain, if the summer is dry, so is the pond. Since I joined Oakwood in 2012, I can only recall it drying up twice.
Each of the four seasons are things of beauty in the preserve. Summer is lush; fall is colorful; winter is calm and quiet; and then there is spring - a season of bright color, heavy rain, brilliant sunshine, cold mornings, and warm afternoons.
On a day like this, it's about as close to paradise as you're going to get this side of heaven.
All photos 5/11/2023 by David Mossner
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