Blessings of the Season

I have written about and shown you pictures of Snow Flowers a number of times over the years of this blog. They are fascinating to me. They appear out of the fungus and rich mulch created by the melting snow. Usually they appear in groups of one, two or three. We have had 4 or 5 scattered across our acre almost every year including the last couple when we had very little snow. They are sacred to the Washoe and there is a fine for picking them. They bring blessings to the area in which they appear.

This year I am writing about them again because we don't have 4 or 5, we have 24 in a (sort of) circle at the beginning of the path up the hill. Twenty-four all clustered together. Here are two of the groups, one with 7 blossoms and one with 3 larger ones.

Here is a cluster of 6 closer to the deck. Obviously there are another eleven in the same area. Blessings abundant seem to be pouring on our home. I don't know whether to be scared or thankful. Don't worry. Thankful. It's just that when you are used to 4 or 5 at the most, 24 can be a bit overwhelming. They will push their way out of the dirt, stand tall and beautiful for several weeks and then just disappear. They will reappear next spring in totally different places on their own whim.