Blooming..Buzzing…Budding..

 By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet.
Thomas Merton  Read More...

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Ahhhh….Well..there is just no question that Spring is in the air!
All that buzzing…and blooming… and budding…

Our weather keeps changing so much that I hardly know what to wear!   One day it’s unseasonably warm and every bug and his cousin is out for a stroll  and the next day it’s chilly and everyone, including the bees..goes back to bed.
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Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation
if it didn't change once in a while.
Kin Hubbard

This determined little luna moth has been ‘hanging out’ on our dining room window screen for three days. 

At night, poor thing, he’s tries his best to get in. And during the day…he just waits...

For what? I don’t know… but it happens every year.

You’d think we had the only light on in the window for miles around!  The moths just flock to our house!
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How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude.
Emily Dickinson

This afternoon, Christian took a walk around the house and yard to capture the first hints of spring for us.  Thanks Christian!

Here in the front yard, the grass is greening up very nicely and the trees are budding. It’s so so pretty!
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And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud 
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
Anais Nin

These brave little flowers were blooming just beside the front sidewalk. Christian did a lovely job capturing their tiny beauty.

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Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into.
Henry Ward Beecher

 

In the backyard we have this beautiful tree.  I don’t know what kind it is..but the leaf cutter ants ADORE it! It took me two years to figure out why this tree kept losing it’s leaves..over and over again.  I’d look out my kitchen window..and the leaves would be dropping like flies.

Can you believe it? The ants were harvesting it. 

Once the leaves were gone, they let them grow back, then harvested it again. Mystery solved.
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“Ants are good citizens they place group interests first” 
 Clarence Day quotes 

    

Yesterday was gray and wet, but warm. The Camelia bush was covered in gorgeous blooms!

Today it was bright and gorgeous but cool. Still..the youngest goldfish were happily sunning in the pond this morning.

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It's hard for the modern generation to understand Thoreau, who lived beside a pond but didn't own water skis or a snorkel.” Bill Vaughn quotes

  Our early bloomer, the tulip tree, has just about lost all of it’s blossoms. 

This is the last one.  Soon it will be covered in nothing but huge green leaves.
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Spring is sooner recognized by plants than by men.  ~Chinese Proverb

My mystery bush…is covered with blossoms this week. I still don’t know what it is!

It looks so lovely next to our antique well house…

This photo is by me. All the rest were taken by my son, Christian.

And the neighbors goats are REALLY happy about the fresh grass. I had to get a photo of them on our morning walk. I adore this little bitty goat. He once ran up our driveway… I thought he was a dog! We say HI to these guys every day. 

I guess the grass really is greener on the other side!
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Ideas are easy. It's the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.
Sue Grafton

Oh my goodness! Sigh…I guess that’s what I get for letting Christian have the camera!

He LOVES taking photos of me..and I just don’t get it. :o)  Funny boy…

How about you? Still covered in snow?….or are you getting a few blossoms too…

Don’t you think it’s a perfect day for a walk?

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“Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God.” George Washington Carver quotes

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Linking with

Tracie’s Flora Cottage Thursdays #10

and

Cindy’s My Romantic Home

Summertime is Here! Nature Photos...and local 'wildlife' (Just teasing!)

Photo by me with point and click through window 
(A long ways away and no zoom feature)


A Deer Looking for a Drink of Water in our BackYard

 Photo by Christian


Our deer are so wild that we never see one up close, but this one wanted a drink and spent a whole five minutes in our backyard eating the grass and inching closer and closer to our pond.  This was as good of a photo as I could get through the kitchen window. Many times, the wildlife, herons, bullfrogs, and even deer..can see us if we even move a tiny tiny bit. So Christian and I were holding our breath and barely moving as we tried to get into position to get a photo. Of the eight I took..this is the only one that actually came out decent.

 Photo by Christian..with cheap point and click


Speaking of Christian...Did I ever tell you what a great photographer, my 15yr. old son, Christian is.  Well he is and he has a photo blog but he never tells anyone about it. It's Mi Pixx at www.mipixx.blogspot.com.

Photo by Christian


I love giving him a camera and saying..hey..can you go get that? I never know what to expect when he has the camera. I would swear that tree was smiling!

Photo by Matthew


Actually, three of my sons are fabulous photographers and all three of them have photo blogs.  Matthew took this picture while stationed in Hawaii. Of the three boys...Christian is the only one with a cheap and very old point and click camera.

Photo by Andrew


The lily pads were PLANTED by Andrew when we first moved out here. He slogged through a nearby neighborhood's overgrown pond and pulled out one little scruffy looking lily pad plant and transplanted it in our pond.

 Photo by Christian

Photo by Rebekah


And I guess I can't leave my daughter, Rebekah, out. She also has a photo blog. She took quite a few of my spring wildflower photos including several in my header.  Here is one of her favorite photos. She likes black and white and all things country.

Photo by Jacob


Jacob also takes great photos..but better movies! He's an incredible silent movie maker....Hopefully, I can get a video uploaded of one of Jacob's funny silent movies before noon.

Sadly, the lily pads have never expanded like we hoped. The problem is our pond is sealed with plastic and though there is silt down there, the lily pads can never really take root. So every summer, this one brave little lily pad...keeps blooming...just to remind us that summer is here.

Photo by me.

We also have two turtles, but I haven't seen them lately. I do hope they are OK. The turtles down the road live in a neighbors pond and my goodness!!--They are just prolific! I counted 15 on that ole' log in the pond the last time I drove to the country market!

Photo by Beverly

Speaking of local wildlife..tee-hee!...I just had to add a couple of cute photos that my friend Beverly Boytim took of some children from our church.

Joshua, Colleen's little boy..photo by Beverly Boytim of Frontier Farm (Beverly is a neighbor.)

This photo of Joshua swinging (above) was priceless, I thought! And the one with several of our little boys jumping is too...Isn't summertime great?

Happy Homemaking!