80AcresOnline

The upstream part of the dry woods swale, with water seeping through the grass on both sides.   This area produces the best water quality, as most of the water has seeped through both rock and soil.

The water in the middle is 4-6 inches deep and perfectly clear.  It runs out the far end (where we’ve put a gabion to slow it down) and thence across the grass, sometimes (as now when the land is sodden) eventually into the old ditch drainage, still perfectly clear.

In contrast, the seasonal creek, a day after another flood event, is still carrying enough sediment that the water is cloudy, even at the very shallow edge:

Tuesday’s flowers included this tiny white-flowered mustard-family plant (not sure which–you can just see the first green seedpods–probably linear–below the middle clump of flowers)–with an early, very small fly.  Each flower was perhaps 1/4 inch across.

These were blooming alongside the mowed north maintenance trail, about halfway between the creek and the dry woods.  Up in the dry woods, I found the first alfilaria flower, its fernlike leaves casting sharp shadows on a rock: