The summerside of spring has arrived, the blackflies are proof enough of that! Spring in mid-May is completely different than spring in early April. Where once the view was brown and gray there is now green, lots of it. And dainty wildflowers blooming on the forest floor. There were a lot of other treasures to be found on last weekend's hike at Lord Hill in Stow, ME. As we sat around the table at our favorite Thai restaurant after our day of hiking (our weekly tradition) we listed all the cool things we saw:

• lady slippers, violets, trillium & wild strawberry blossoms (and a bunch of others we couldn't identify)
• an old graveyard tucked into the woods off the side of the trail
• butterflies
• stone foundations and walls (this is New England after all) crumbling in the "wilderness"
• bubbling brooks and little moss covered waterfalls
• mountain top views of nearby mountains and pristine ponds
• moose tracks
• teeth or bone matter from an unlucky prey found in carnivorous animal scat - how my kids spot these things amazes me
• spotted slug, Laurent is our slug biologist
• an old granite mine with fascinating white rocks and huge chunks of mica
• a beaver dam that had done quite an amazing job of turning a stream into a pond
• grouse (heard not seen)

It was a great hike for discovering the natural beauty and the history of our state.