Another April Fool's Joke?

 We awoke yesterday to a light skift of snow ... on  the lilacs 
and on the Kousa dogwood ...

The flowering quince was frosted ...

l
But the snow disappeared with the morning sun, leaving no damage to any of the blossoms.

Apparently, Mother Nature was just fooling with us. 

 

It's Seasonal

The pussy willows, white and black, are showing, leading me to think that Spring herself may be on her way to our mountains.

Thursday was a beautiful day -- so warm that I left the doors open to the breezes and moved the snow shovel from the front porch to the back  of  the house.


In the pastures, the cows and calves lay on their sides, soaking up the sun, while birds flitted busily from tree to tree;

The last of the ice has melted from the road and after a winter of huddling by the fire, I'm wanting to do everything -- reorganize drawers and closets, polish silver, clean up the winter-weary garden, finish the unfinished projects, and start some new ones. 

It's like the nesting urge pregnant women get in the last weeks before delivery -- deciding that Now might be a good time to wax the floor and move all the furniture around. 

Outside, I see that the birds are beginning to pair up and check out the empty birdhouses.

Which leads me to wonder . . .  at one time did humans, like birds and most wild things, give birth mainly in the Spring? It makes sense -- food and warmth would be more abundant making a better environment for a newborn.

So when I begin to think about Spring cleaning, is is a primal memory stirring? Am I reenacting prehistoric nesting urges?

It's something to think about as I shove the furniture around...

A Spring Rain is a Lovesome Thing

'Red sky at morning -- sailor take warning.'

Though it was more of a pinkish-orange than red, Thursday's sky did, indeed, foretell rain.

I managed to do a bit in the garden -- tidying up the asparagus beds. pruning the black pussy willow, and planting some sugar snap peas and mesclun -- before the clouds rolled in and the rain drops drove me back to the house.

The recent hot days have dried things out amazingly fast and the rain was most welcome -- especially as there've been brush fires in the area.

Such a pleasure to see the drops pocking the surface of the fish pool. . .

...making the periwinkle glisten...

... and setting an evergreen a-twinkle with tiny lights.

The tulips blushed pink with pleasure and the forsythia was a joyous yellow burst against the new-mown grass's emerald green.

A spring rain is a lovesome thing.

Revelations of a Hot Spring Day

An opening tulip brims with morning light,  
Holding the day in its fragile bowl.

The pear's gray branches burgeon green and white  . . .

And, as the day rolls on, shadows lengthen . . .

Troops of young trees salute the evening sun . . .

And one by one, tulips fold their curving petals, 

Making ready for the night.

 

Promises

Spring is so full of promises -- from a sunlit patch on distant hills at the close of a cloudy day . . .

to the daylily's determined leaves thrusting out of the winter-cold earth . . .

and the climbing yellow rose, bursting forth in new green finery.
 

Tiny buds tip the lilac branches, hinting at glories to come . . .

while wild spirea's flower-like rosy new foliage deserves a closer look . . .

The blue, blue sky invites our hopes to soar . . .

and the flowering quince's tight furled buds say, No -- over here -- look at me!

 

Early Spring Mosaic . . . with Chickens

The handsome fella in the middle is our Buff Orpington rooster. I always name our roosters Gregory Peck but this guy was raised by Justin and Claui who named him Reginald Dukakis.

It doesn't matter; he won't answer to either. 

 

We have to keep our biddies in a pen, due to predators -- hawks, foxes, coons, and, alas, our own dogs. The birds seem pretty content -- they've got room to move around, a house to shelter in, dirt to scratch in, and we make a points of bringing them green stuff.

Reginald/Gregory is starting his little rooster dance -- preparatory to jumping on the hen's back and mating -- ah, chicken foreplay.

We have Buff Orpingtons and Gold-Laced Wyandottes, who lay pinkish-brown eggs and Ameruacanas, who are responsible for the pretty bluish eggs. 

They are laying well now, after slacking off during the dark days of winter -- fourteen hens and most days we get ten eggs.

Good thing Easter's almost here! There'll be plenty of eggs for the Easter egg hunt!

A Morning Stroll

Spring is hurtling along -- every day brings something new and wonderful.

My stroll to the chicken house yesterday morning yielded a nice haul of eggs and a little web album of the latest Spring arrivals -- Mother Nature's fashion show.

Note: Please ignore that empty Spinning Wheels post some of you received. I hit the wrong button. The post that goes before this one is Marigold the Jersey Heifer. Spinning Wheels will happen tomorrow, if I don't foul things up again. ~ V