Hope

Idaho blue-eyed grass (Sisyrhincium idahoense) blooming in the prairie, 4/7/12.

About a year ago I made a post about voles and how they had destroyed the first bit of real prairie I had created. There were tunnels and tunnels and nothing came up and it was all pretty bleak. The theory I had then was that maybe they also helped spread the plants that they consumed, and I decided I would wait until the next year to see what happened in that spot.

I am an optimist, and I do think that regular everyday life reveals mysteries and what would be miracles except these things are not extraordinary. It's just what happens. And so it was with these prairie spots. Yeah, the voles went insane (and then mysteriously went away...until they inevitably will return in a few years), but as I suspected, they did indeed spread plants around. All through this area now are stalks of sisyrhincium (Idaho blue-eyed grass), and many of the grass-like hairs that will become full-blown sisyrhincium in the future. I spotted two fritillaria pudica coming up, too.

We have had too much snow, but it is a fine thing to see Spring poking through!