tick magnet

 Still seeing multiple rabbits a day here!

Some really gorgeous moths lately, too.

clymene moth

stinging rose moth

tulip tree beauty moth

And my first caterpillar!  Looking forward to a caterpillar bounty this fall.

yellow woolly bear caterpillar

The garden is looking great, somehow!  Normally I have a lot of weedy-looking celosia, but the deer are so plentiful this year that they've mowed them all down.  All I have left are the things that deer don't really eat...like this beautiful perennial purple verbena bonariensis.

Coneflowers are going strong, too.

Nice to have reliable perennials coming up, like russian sage and yarrow.

We've been able to resume our walks in the main part of the state forest but wow, the damage is crazy!

Even with downed trees, the little lake is so pretty.

Still dealing with the usual pests...

lone star tick pulled from Pepita

...but overall, it's been smooth sailing around here.  At 99 days accident-free, Pepita has earned access to a new room...with a rug!

With hot, humid days, she spends a lot of time napping.

...as well as her kitten cousins!

Hoping for a break in the humidity next week.  I'd love to spend a little more time outdoors!

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!

mellow yellow

It's the yellow season in the garden!  I didn't mean to plant so much, but I think it's so cheerful and I just can't help myself. 

Our white poppies are about done...

...and now the red ones are starting.  All re-seeded from last year!

Although nothing from the annual garden is near blooming yet, I've been able to get plenty of flowers from the perennial garden.

An insane amount of daisies this year.  They've tripled their original number and just keep growing and spreading!

It reminds me so much of my favorite photo of great grandma Grace.

A busy time with the animals here.  I noticed Claudia wasn't eating, and that she had flecks of foam on her whiskers.  She let me check her mouth and I realized that she'd lost her incisors on the left side and couldn't masticate the hard kibble that she normally eats.  I pureed wet cat food for her until her mouth healed.  It was a strange week.  She occasionally leaves bird parts on our doorstep, but that week there was just one confused bird that she'd tried to gum...

...but only managed to pull out a few feathers.  She's all better now!

The choglets are eating and growing...

...and we've continued our snake streak with a THIRD black rat snake in as many weeks!  This one was in our storage barn.

He was a lot bigger than the first two! 

We've been seeing a lot of rabbits around, too.

And on these rabbits...

Yes, more ticks, and MORE ticks.

I even found a tick crawling on Frances yesterday, and he's a strictly indoor cat!  We are being very, very diligent about tick checks this year and so far only Todd has had a single tick attached.  Of course, he's been in their territory quite a bit lately.

We've both been outside lately because the weather has been wonderful, and continues to look promising in the forecast.  70s into the second week of June?  I'll take it!  So we're outside as much as possible, and when inside, our indoor animals keep us on our toes.

Here's Barnabas, who decided that a mere screen did not provide enough ventilation, and it cramped his stretch as well.  So, necessity is the mother of invention...

A new hole provides enough of both!  And Frances is responding in a similar way to his no-cats-on-the-table training.

Life is never boring around here.  Have a great week!