Orchids and Thunder

Years and years ago, when I was writing a weekly newspaper column, I wrote about the Good Shepherd swamp and its trail that I often walked. One spring, I reported on the first blooming, the three lobed hepatica, a lovely lavendar colored flower that appeared at only one spot along the trail. I described the flowers to my readers and my joy each year at finding them.

The day after the column appeared, I was back on the trail and found to my horror, that someone had picked every one of the flowers. Perhaps it was someone taking a child out to pick flowers. Perhaps it was some teenager who noticed them. No matter. It was the last time I ever saw the hepatica in the Good Shepherd swamp. I never wrote about wildflowers again with the exception of the marsh marigolds. There were so many, no one could pick all of them.

Today, I am writing about a nature area with beautiful flowers, but they are generally known to the public so I hope no one is tempted to go picking or even worse, digging them up and transplanting them.

The 1800 acres of water and forest of the Fumee Lake Natural Area are just off Highway 2 at the outskirts of Norway, Michigan. There are miles of hiking and biking trails rated easy to difficult. Canoeing is allowed with a portage between lakes. During the winter the trails are open for snow shoeing and cross country skiing.

Today, Gary and I returned there to see what orchids are blooming. We hiked the shorter trail around Little Fumee Lake, only a mile and a half on an easy road, but we found plenty to look at.

In that short period we saw rununculus (buttercups),columbine, beech peas, water irises, and goats beard. White flowers showed the promise of blackberries by the end of July.

The streams were full of bullhead lilies.

But what we had come to see were the multitude of yellow lady's slippers.

They were everywhere, but just one of the seventeen orchids found at Fumee Lake. If we had gone further, we likely would have found the more common pink lady's slippers, but we will see those at the Bog Lake by next week. A little later in the summer, Fumee will have the rarer showy lady's slipper.

Other orchids will show up at Fumee as the year progresses. I wish I had thought to include the place in Yesterday's Secrets, Tomorrow's Promises, my romance novel set in Norway.

Tonight we are snuggled in the trailer, waiting for a thunderstorm with multitude lightening strikes. As I told Barbara Gaulke, things that go wrong make for good blog posts. If we survive, I'll report on it tomorrow.