Wordless Wednesday
Tag Archives: yard
Abundance
It’s that time of year again, when everything seems to be blooming all at once.
Though May is my favorite month, full of promise and hope of a bountiful summer, July runs a close second just because it’s the middle of summer.
I took a wander around the yard today and realized just how much stuff in my gardens was blooming.
On a warm sunny day with big white puffy clouds everything looks perfect.
And I realize I love being retired so that I can take a leisurely walk around the yard and discover blooms hiding among the foliage.
Stuff, that in the old days of working long hours far from home, I would have missed, only noticing spent blossoms way too late.
So today I savor my freedom and the beauty of a warm summer day. And I’m sharing it all with you.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the mini tour of my gardens. Have a wonderful day in your part of the world!
Father/daughter lunch
Walking through the living room this week I noticed two hairy woodpeckers on the feeder. That’s unusual. We don’t get hairy woodpecers often, and when we do it’s always a single bird chowing down.
I stopped to watch, from across the room so as not to startle the. Sure enough, one of them was a youngster, eating away happily while dad was on the other side of the feeder…
…but happily accepting a special morsal from dad when he offeres it.
This time of year seeing parents cater to their teenage, soon to be adult, children is pretty common. They don’t seem to notice that their kids are eating just fine and on their own when they’re not being waited on.
I’m glad I happened to wander past their special time together when I did.
Note: I’m not sure if the kid is a boy or a girl. There’s no red spot on the back of it’s head which leads me to think it’s a girl…but there IS a spot just above the beak and I don’t know what that means. If you know, please comment below!
Wordless Wednesday – what you lookin at?
Karma’s photo challenge – signs of spring around here
As usual, spring in Michigan is a mixed bag. Since we had 60 (15.5C) degree and sometimes higher temperatures in February we were owed several days or even weeks of temperatures in the 30s, (-1.11 C) sometimes lower, in March. With wind and snow to make everything feel extra special.
Still, signs of spring persist even here.
The first sounds of spring, the thing that solidifies the concept of spring for me every year, are the red-winged blackbirds. They announce their arrival loudly with a very distinctive call.
I usually hear them before I see them. But a day or so after I hear them singing over in the swamp they will have found my feeder. They come in mass and gobble up everything, much to the dismay of the smaller birds.
They’ve been around for a few weeks now and are disgusted, just as we all were, with that last snow storm.
And when I see my goldfinches start to turn yellow – well – than spring is well and truly on the way. It seems that one day they are all olive drab, and the next day the males are sprouting gold spots.
And then suddenly those show-offs are entirely, brilliant, yellow.
In fact yellow seems to be the color of spring. Between the daffodils, which are the only spring flowers we can have due to our hardy deer population…
…to the forsythia in the back yard…
…to the cowslips in the nearby woods…
…if you see an abundance of yellow around these parts you can almost guarantee spring has sprung.
Almost.
Thanks, Karma, for hosting this photo challenge! I remain hopeful that that last snow was our last snow. If you know what I mean.
Penny knows
It was sunny and cool on Wednesday, the perfect day for a sheltie-girl. Penny and I were walking through the back yard, she focused on her beloved birds flitting among the feeders near the house, me remembering, as I often do when I’m in the back yard, Katie’s last moments there.
I remembered walking with Katie into the house when the vet arrived. I never thought, in the moment, that she and I would never walk into the house together again. I remember walking with her, the vet and my husband, through the backyard to a pretty place under the birch trees, the sky blue like it was yesterday. I never thought, in the moment, that she wouldn’t be there to enjoy her yard ever again.
But now, often when I’m out there, I think about those moments and the bigger picture and I miss her so much.
Meanwhile Penny was laying at my feet, intently watching the feeders, when she heard me sniffling and looked over her shoulder at me, concern in her eyes. Then she popped up and put her front feet on my hips, head tilted inquisitively. I reached down and lifted her into my arms for a hug.
My sensitive girl knew.
Then I put her back down and we both ran joyfully back to the house, her attacking my ankles, me laughing. And somewhere over the rainbow bridge Katie smiled.
I’m sure of it.
Change Is Hard 