A Ray Of Sunshine

Day 204: Pacific Northwest forests can be very dark places especially when the overstory is tall and dense. At the edge of my property is one such band of woodland, though my portion of it only accounts for a depth of ten feet before you encounter the dilapidated barbed-wire fence which separates it from five acres of thick brush and towering evergreens. The understory in my little strip of woods is full of bedstraw (cleavers), yellow violets, false lily-of-the-valley and oxalis. While none of these is designated a "sun-fleck" species, they benefit from long periods when only slim rays of sun slip between the boughs overhead.

Among the litter of evergreen needles and twigs, dry grass and other withered vegetation, the oxalis' bright eyes open to the sun on those rare days when the sun shines, and nod closed when the clouds gather. Today, they welcomed the shafts of brilliant light, so ephemeral in the Pacific Northwestern spring.