Excellent description and very true to the spirit of the challenge.

Lovely, careful, and nicely charactered description of what you see on a walk through the woods. Loved it.

dogwood trees are a beautiful sight in spring, a sign that bulbs are sprouting and the hibernation is coming to an end. I get two scenes here though, the tree without blossoms and the tree with. I think the last paragraph almost need past tense, like when you said ‘clung’ when referring to the leaves in the leaves in the second paragraph. I know that breaks the rules of continuity, but it lets us know you meant the blossoms on the tree to be the scene.

my fave line: The forest floor is a spongey mass of discarded needles, last year’s debris, and this year’s life waiting to emerge from a cold primordial soup. !

Thanks, Elsha. Actually, the trees don’t have flowers right now, just last year’s leaves.
They get flowers after last year’s leaves fall off, then the new leaves come out.

i think i saw one the other day,a tiny one, but they aren’t out here either. not yet.