dead nettle mettle

I love this time of year.  Every time we walk, we see new things popping out of the ground and new green on formerly empty vines and branches.

My favorite right now is the ferns.  They are so beautiful as they slowly unfurl.

We're seeing so much activity, too.  Squirrels...

...geese...

...turkey vultures...

...and raccoons are daily visitors.

Chogs are back!!

Oh, hello!

We have a nesting pair of herons in our back pond!

It's a lot of excitement.  ;)  We've even got some insect activity!  Spiders have been making webs everywhere.

I've been frantically working in the back garden to try to stay ahead of the weeds.  It was cold, and then we had a week of rain.  Finally, it dried out, but the weeds got a head start.  This is the front of our side bed...

...and this is the huge weed patch in the middle of it. My perennial bee balm is growing up amidst the sea of dead nettle, wild cress, poison ivy, and other monsters.

So...much...dead nettle.

I've put in hours and hours and barely made a dent.  There's a lot of guilt, too, because in early spring, bees rely on dead nettle for sustenance...and I'm yanking it up by the handful.

I've left plenty for them, and besides...our crabapple tree is blooming.

Dandelions and violets are up, including some especially pretty varieties...

My late-blooming daffodils are still holding on, and vinca is blooming everywhere...

In short, they have plenty to eat right now.  

Claudia continues to come outside, briefly, on nice days...

...but she's definitely ready to go back in the barn after a few hours...and she never wants to be outside at night.  She and Todd have always gotten along...

...but he never thought they'd be roommates one day!  :)  She's always by his side in his barn office now, begging for attention or sleeping on her special mat.  She's definitely enjoying retirement!  

And, as usual, our indoor cats are enjoying...whatever.

Still not allowed on the table...but taking advantage of my distraction while working on a business project.

Spring is a busy time, but hopefully I can get the garden in shape in time for the hot weather.  Have a great week!  

a green sheen

 For so long, all we have had, in between snows, were pretty seed pods...

...and bare treetops.

But a few warm days, and suddenly...

Some trees are even starting to bud out!

One of the earliest flowers, dead nettle, is blooming.

Another early spring occurrence - our cattails are spreading seed.

I can see bluebirds starting to build nests in our fence post nesting boxes...and other animals are pairing up too!

Todd has started experimenting with his drone.  Hopefully he can catch our coyote pair or bobcat in the woods before the leaves come in!

His drone isn't the only thing in the air.  As usual in early spring, the power company sends a helicopter out to drag a long serrated blade, trying to clear out debris around power lines.

The cats are watching everything from their window perch.

When they aren't otherwise engaged, that is.

There's always something new happening in early spring.  I love it!  And some pretty nice early morning views, too.

Have a great week!

testing my nettle

A double holiday!  Todd's birthday and Easter, back to back.  I decided to have an "Easter After Dark" egg hunt with glow-in-the-dark eggs.

Inspired by glorious egg hunts of days past...

...I used plastic eggs with tiny glow sticks inside, as well as a folded-up joke.  The prize for finding all eggs?  Easter candy, of course!  I also made a small coconut cake with a lemon curd layer for earlier in the day.  Todd's birthday needed a special cake, too.  I used a photo from an old Star Wars gathering and had an edible icing sheet made.  Just perfect!

It's really brightening up outside.  Redbuds are just getting ready to open up.

Our maple is finally leafing out...

...and the apple tree is showing promise.  Not long now!

Hostas are unfurling...

All bulbs are awakening.  Daffodils have been up for a couple of weeks...

...but now we have hyacinths...

...and one of my favorites, grape muscari.

Everywhere I've ever lived, I've planted these cheerful little bells.

Claudia is loving our cool, sunny afternoons.

She loves to come down to the pond with us when we take a stroll.

Borga, too, is sniffing the wind.  Spring is here!

Finally (almost) free of invasive weeds, the fields are starting to fill up with dead nettle.  It's a beautiful little wildflower whose green leaves slowly darken to purple at its tip.  The flowers are like tiny orchids.

En masse, they are beautiful!

My little winter sow greenhouses are slowly filling with green.

I'm not sure how the garden will be this year, though.  Between my sore elbow and shoulder, and busy prep for a work convention in May, it's just going to be really tough to weed, augment the soil, pot up the seedlings, and then get them planted and nurtured until they take off.  I might let one whole plot go to grass and just focus on a smaller area.  I'll at least have several of my favorites, somewhere.

Have a great week!