eye of newt

Once again, I've fallen behind.  It's been so busy here, and then we had company for a week.  No matter what, however, certain things had to get done, like spraying our apple tree for fungus...

...and trimming off the dead bits.

(It was gloriously in bloom!  This year, we will have apples!!)

Birthdays had to be celebrated.

Pups had to be fawned over.

Cats couldn't be left out!

It's been so beautiful outside...crisp weather, some warm days, and lots of walks.  

beaver activity!

Eastern box turtle

millipede

Eastern newt

And closer to home, too!

possum

European starling

So pretty.

Hopefully things will slow down in the next week or two...but it's almost time to start seeding annuals for summer.  We'll see how it goes!  Spring is always such a whirlwind!  

cage match

Ack!  I am behind schedule on everything right now, but wanted to make an effort to put out something this week.  

April Fools!  This pizza...

...is actually a big cookie, with frosting "sauce" (I ran out of red food coloring so it wasn't super convincing) and frozen/grated white chocolate for the cheese.  It was delicious!

Todd was also surprised by Nicolas Cage in our car back-up camera...

...courtesy of a small photo taped in front of the lens.  :)

Easter!  I made a really tasty carrot cake with a really easy frosting method.  Squiggles I can do.

Spring ephemerals!  They are going crazy right now.  Todd and I  have been so busy that I'm not even sure we'll get in our spring ephemeral hike this year, but I've seen so many on our regular trails...

yellow trout lily

virginia bluebells

celadine poppy

dwarf larkspur

dutchmans breeches

prairie trillium

And when the mayapples get tall...

Morels come out!

I gathered some and fried them up for supper this week.

Oh, redbuds are here and almost gone!

Ferns...

Trees...

spicebush 

norway maple

Bushes...

burning bush

Everywhere we go...

...we see life returning to the forest.  And some unwanted life, despite our cold winter...

Ticks have been insane this spring.  Even though Pepita is on a flea/tick preventative, she has had multiple ticks, and brought multiple ticks into the house.  Todd has found two ticks crawling on his body this week too.  Now we rub her down every single time she returns from being outside, with extra checks during the day.  So far so good!

Everyone is enjoying the sunshine.

We're going to have a lot more of it soon...we're running full-tilt into late spring...somehow!  Lots to do before the spring ends.  More soon!

green machine

 Another huge temperature fluctuation...53 degrees in one night!

This Thursday, it's supposed to go from 85 (day) to 27 (the next night).  Pretty wild.  But I'm loving all the green that's coming back with these warmer days!

Golden Ragwort

From a waking red maple

see the tiny flowers?

American elderberry

bronze fern

common cinquefoil

cutleaf toothwort...the first spring ephemeral!!!

cranefly orchid

a 12-spotted pink lady beetle on birds-eye speedwell

We had some freak snow...again...

...but it stopped after an hour or two and had completely melted by the afternoon.  

We went hiking at one of our favorite places, Bean Blossom Bottoms.  Not a lot of green yet...

...but still plenty to see, including emerging greens!

Finally some exercise for this chonk!

Looking forward to April and a real explosion of color!