Petal trails

So I am back to telling stories of my weekend trip to the hills. The walk to Mukteshwar was full of wildlife..both flora and fauna. This post is not really another wildlife roll-call, because I want to tell you of the flowers.

Wild flowers there were many- ground orchids, and flowering grasses, and daisies. These were pretty enough, but did not intrigue me.

What intrigued me is that the forest path to Mukteshwar was strewn with dahlia petals. Not all of it, but enough that I would notice. There was a trail of them along the path, and every now and then, a little group of the petals. Not too many, maybe a half dozen. But definitely noticeable. I actually considered napaeae, but laughed the thought away.

The mystery was solved when I came across two women who had come there to cut fodder for their animals. We stopped and chatted for a while, and as they turned away, I saw the petals again. They were wearing dahlias in their hair, and the flowers were shedding their petals. As they walked, the women were leaving a petal trail

hm. So maybe my wood-nymph idea was not too wrong, after all.