pawpaws and turtle and the light

Looky here! I found one! better than a magic easter egg!
Course, in all my wanderings, I have only found a few, and most pawpaws are just leafing out and chucking the whole reprodutction trip for this year, but for some reason, even this little effort means something, somehow. Will they make fruit?
My scientific mind skirts the primitive superstition that I doomed the pawpaws by posting in glee over their prolific blossoming just before the freeze, so am I tempting fate now by mentioning these little buds, seen here behind the previous attempt?


I believe I have a gajillion turtle photographs, they are such accommodating wildlife when it comes to study. At one time, I was photographing and cataloging shell pattern types, looking for, well, I don't really know....
There is a very interesting and well written article here by Marcia Bonta about saving box turtles, that discusses their wandering ways.
Anyway, this photo is good of his face because of the light. And the light is really what this post is about. Isn't this an unnatural light for first of May? (if you were from around here, you would say, yes, by now the trees would be in full leaf and the forest floor would be dark enough to need a flash to determine if he had red or yellow eyes.) But, no, the diffused light is still unnaturally bright. It makes the holler hotter than usual, and maybe the extra light is what is encouraging the paw paws to go ahead and give it another try?
What else will so much light this time of year do? I can already see grasses seeding rampantly in the understory...hmmmm.