Saturday, April 25, 2015

the garden awakens




 Yea! The sun finally came out for a few days and things are turning green!

this is the same garden that was under all that snow! You can see the whole frog that was once buried up to his neck in the white stuff.


the garlic looks good!

signs of spring!

I don't know what these are, they just showed up one year. They must have been in with something I transplanted. The color is spectacular!

purple primroses

I don't know what these are either! They are the same color as the other ones.


they look like fairy flowers!

Enjoy the Sunshine!

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

oh, deer!



These deer wandered through our yard a few weeks ago before all the snow was gone. We were happy to see that so many survived the winter, and they looked in pretty good shape. We love to watch them, sometimes in late spring and early summer a doe and fawn (sometimes twins!) will come and munch on various plants. We do chase them away if they start to eat any of the perennials, but overall they don't bother too many of our plantings.

this is the whole herd in the field next to our house









they were eating some of the twigs and branches

they are standing behind one of my red twig dogwoods here, they didn't eat any of that



they came across the creek to check out the birdfeeder



I took all these pictures from inside the house, through the window



Sunday, April 19, 2015

geese on the pond



We have a pair of Canada geese that occasionally build a nest on the tiny island in the middle of our small pond. Last year they laid seven eggs and hatched seven goslings. They hung around in the yard for a few days, wandering around, eating grass, and swimming in the pond. At night the mother and babies would sleep in the nest. Then one day, they just wandered off, and we didn't see them again. This was only the 2nd time they hatched the eggs. The first time, quite a few years ago, they had three goslings, and after a few days we watched them march across the driveway into the big field next to our house. We thought we had scared them off by getting too close, trying to watch them. I googled info on the habits of Canada geese, and leaving the area after the eggs hatch is common.



Poor little guys, their legs are so short they have a hard time walking over the rough ground. They fall over a lot and sometimes the adults step on them! I can't imagine how long it takes them to walk to wherever they are going!



The adults return every spring, sometimes they nest, sometimes they don't, we haven't figured out why. This year we had 2 pair and 1 single goose for a few days, one pair kept chasing the other off, and we have ended up with 1 pair and the single goose. One of them has built a nest and there are now 3 eggs in it. I hope they hatch these and I can get some pictures of the babies because they are really cute!

she is building the nest here on the island

if you look closely, you can see the other 2 eggs through the grass

this is the island, the water is still quite high



update: the geese all left without hatching any eggs, so no goslings this year!

Monday, April 13, 2015

tiny crowns

These are made from toilet paper tubes! Cover tubes with sheet music, book pages or decorative paper. Then cut out, paint inside of crown, glue tiny beads on ends of points and embellish with paper flowers, buttons and crystals. They are really fun to make!














I hope those new toilet paper roles that don't have tubes never catch on! Just think of all the crafts that would never get made!







Thursday, April 2, 2015

Happy Easter!

It was finally warm enough today to take down the outdoor Christmas decorations. I was afraid the Easter Bunny would get confused!



This is how the Easter Bunny is traveling this year!
Happy Easter everyone!