This is a view across the Celery Bog. 

Here's Dad, Anna & Liebchen, heading back to the main part of the bog.

Last summer's snail shells.

Liebchen, the intrepid badger-hunter... refusing to go through a hollow log.

Spring Cress (Cardamine bulbosa, Brassicaceae) - a very early spring flower.

Some cool shelf fungi growing on an old tree.

These are Salt & Pepper flowers (Erigenia, Apiaceae), also known as Harbingers-of-Spring. They have a beautiful purple center in each flower.

Some kind of white, oystery fungus on a fallen tree.

Now, here's something that I've never seen before. This log was covered with a whole colony of puffball fungi. There are more of these on this one log than I've seen in my entire life. They're called puffballs because if you touch one when it's ripe, the spores puff out like smoke. Cool, huh?

The season's first Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica, Portulacaceae), poking up through the leaves.

And now, today's cool tree - Staphylea trifolia, the bladdernut. The trifolia part of the name refers to the leaves, which have three leaflets. This shrubby plant produces these seed pods. When they're fresh, the pods are bright green and filled with air. As this plant usually grows next to water, the seeds are dispersed as they float downstream.