Flowers and a Milestone

I took Thane to the woods today.  The Lady Slippers were blooming, and even though I already have a million photos of them on my computer, I had to stop and take a couple more:

Look, these ones were white...not sure I've seen that before:

Lol, every time I stopped to take a photo, every kind of biting insect known to man descended upon me (well, not EVERY kind...just mosquitoes and black flies - but that was plenty!!)...but I kept stopping to take photos.  In retrospect, maybe not the best decision, but I'm nothing if not stubborn.  So these next flower photos may not be high quality shots, but just think of the (less than advisable) sacrifice behind each one of them!!

Wild Strawberries:

Violets:

Blackberries:

Little star-shaped things:

Clover:

Cheerful little yellow things:

Vetch:

Tiny daisy-like things:

Buttercup-ish things:

More cheerful yellow things:

And last but not least, pretty purple daisy-ish things:

Lol, I'll have to get out my wildflower book sometime and figure out all the real names of the flowers.  :P

I was impressed at how much is blooming right now!  And I was even more impressed at the voracity of the flying, biting insects that inhabit the woods!!  

Oh! My title mentions a milestone too...that milestone does NOT include flowers or mosquitoes.  It's about Thane.  

Today...Thane came when I called to him - even though he was playing with another dog!

  

Lol, that might not sound like such a big deal to most people, but I've had several instances where Thane followed happily after another dog - totally ignoring me calling to him - as the dog's owner hiked (and in one case jogged) up a long hill....when I wanted to go down the hill.  

But today, instead of "*Puff, puff* Please stop so I can *puff, puff* catch my dog!!", Thane ran after the other dog, played for a minute - and then he actually listened to me...and came tearing back over to me at top speed from a pretty considerable distance.  

That made me very, very happy.

And I'd like to think it made Thane happy too, because he got lots of praise and several bites of cheese.  :)