toothless men and a turkey hen

 Is it the "cat days" of early summer?

Maybe!  The bramble flowers have dropped and fruit is setting up.

On our apple tree, too!

The brief window for peonies is here.  The windows are always open and we can smell them from the yard, and of course I bring them inside!

Todd has started his yearly ritual of getting a little exercise every few days by mowing sections of the field.  

New young pine cones are setting up for the season...

Sugar snap peas are popping...

...and speaking of "popping," my Sissinghurst poppies are starting to open!  I almost like them better as closed pods.  They remind me of a toothless old man!  So much character.  :)  The flowers themselves are so delicate and fleeting, but I enjoy the leaves and pods for weeks.

Hot days and cool nights bring amazing morning fog.

The porch spiderwebs are bejeweled...

...and morning walks are magical.

I regularly hear turkeys gobbling in the mornings, and see them sometimes, too!

Others are out scouting around, like the southern yellowjacket queen, looking for a good place to start a nest.  Not in our mulch pile, please!

Pollinators are out and about...

Lassioglossum sweat bee

tarnished plant bug

paper wasp

Future pollinators too, like this Painted Lady caterpillar, starting to pupate!  

It's an exciting time of year, one of my favorites.  I wake up early...really early.  I open the windows by 5 a.m.  The frogs sing loudly until about 5:45 a.m., and then the birds start.  Sometimes I go out on the porch.  The garden by the porch is in full bloom...

Owls are hooting in the forest and turkeys gobbling faintly in the field.  If I sit in the porch swing, the little song sparrows that live in the side garden start to sing, just a few feet away.  Claudia is rubbing against my ankles...the porch is her domain.  I feel like I'm in a Disney cartoon sometimes!

It's so peaceful here, even though this is a really busy season for us.  We're working hard now to get things done, so that in the heat of summer, we can relax.  

Have a great week!  

mandible mouthful

 Beautiful warm mornings for hiking!

I love seeing the woods wake up.

red maple

rusty blackhaw

spicebush

silver maple

anemone ran.

senecio aus.

Sometimes, when looking into the woods, the woods looked back! Someone did, anyway.

white-tailed deer

Things are stirring everywhere!

american bullfrog

There's definitely plenty of water for frogs to play in.  :)

At home, I'm picking the last of the early daffodils and the start of the late daffodils.

I love bringing them into the house!

When I was out picking daffodils, I noticed that carpenter bees were bypassing the flower throats and stabbing directly into the nectar pod behind the petals.

You can see how short their tongues are...

That makes it difficult for them to penetrate tube-throated flowers, like daffodils.  Instead, they use their cutting mandibles...so helpful when they're chewing wood fibers...to cut directly into the nectar pod.  The flowers are still getting pollinated by other visitors...

northern paper wasp

...and the bees get the nutrition they need.  So interesting!

In other news around the house, both sugar snap and sweet peas are thriving and ready to go into the ground this week!

I'm getting some nice growth in the outside mini greenhouses, too.  If our weather remains above freezing for the next two - three weeks, AND if the forecast is positive, then I will be able to put out the summer flower seeds by the third week of April!  Hooray!  I've got a lot of great plans for the garden this year, shoulder permitting.

Have a great week!