spring cleaning

 It is finally nice enough outside to clean up the flower beds. On the way out to the far fence line, I walked past the pussy willow tree and the light was shining on those puffy little buds and I wondered if I could take a picture that could capture it. So I went and got my camera and this what I got...

this honey bee was in there!

achoo!!!

this is the tree. Vince accidentally mowed over it the first year we had it because we forgot to put a marker on it. It didn't hurt it much!

ok, time to get to work! But I decided to keep the camera with me in case I found something blog-worthy.

smart move, because I almost immediately dug this guy up while removing a clump of weeds. I'm glad I didn't skewer him with my garden fork!

He wasn't too happy about being pulled out of the cold dirt and put in the sun, so I put him right back after I took his portrait. I found another one about 20 feet away under one of the pussy willow trees. 

After I got done cleaning up the fence line, I walked over to the pond and took some pictures there...

there are hundreds of these salamanders in the pond, I love to watch them, they just hang there in the water, so peaceful

These minnows showed up last year, the first fish we've ever had!

a salamander and a bullfrog tadpole (or pollywog, which is more fun to say!), it takes one to two years for bullfrog tadpoles to become frogs!

I wandered over to the purple primroses, they just looked so pretty with the yellow daffodils looking down at them that I had to take their picture again.

This the fence next to the driveway, I was able to clean this up a few weeks ago when we had the first nice weekend weather.

After dinner we were sitting on the porch enjoying the early evening, and this robin was sitting on the fence for a long time. He is so beautiful with the setting sun shining on his red breast.

It started to get chilly out so we came in and I started to clean up the kitchen, but when I looked out the window, the moon was shining through one of my favorite trees, and there was a red winged blackbird on a branch, so I grabbed the camera one more time and took these through the window....

It was the perfect ending to a great spring day, the first weekend in May!!

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!

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

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!

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!

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!