snow petals

there's snow in our forecast these past days - and today i thought i saw it! but upon closer investigation, it proved to be only petals from the myriad of white flowers on this tree, floating down and covering the grass, just like the snow.

earth day weekend

saturday morning clean up and a trip to the transfer station. shown are only a few of the magazines to be taken there. because i'm so conscious of the amount of paper i purchase and use, i try hard to find the information i want and need on the internet as opposed to in print. but old house magazines are my downfall. there's something about opening a new magazine for the first time, turning the pages, seeing a photograph, studying its details, reading the article - as much as i would wish it were so, it's just not the same on a computer screen. when i feel guilty about being a paper-consumer in this way, i rationalize that magazines like these are my only paper indulgence. and then i remember post-it notes...

toms

all week i've been hearing turkey calls from high up in the woods. then this afternoon, there he was, gobbling and strutting his stuff for the ladies right in my own back yard. and he even brought a buddy with him! i grabbed for the camera and the telephoto lens and began to shoot out the window so as not to spook them. and then i remembered: just a few hours earlier, i had inserted the screens back in all the windows. so this shot is not clear since it's through the mesh of the screen...but i thought you might enjoy seeing him anyway, in all his puffed up glory!

best laid plans

the little girl was here this afternoon, quite unexpectedly. gone were my plans to wash windows, work in the garden, and dine late in the evening. instead there were sandboxes and shovels, spiral slides and hanging bars, and water in a spray bottle to water the flowers and wash the house. later, chicken for dinner with veggies to dip and milk in a cup. the serendipitous day ended with a splashy bath, a towel-ish snuggle, and a lovely soapy smell to her damp hair.

it was way better than washing windows.

fern, unfurling

vacation week and lots of time for walking in the woods and experimenting with the camera. like this fern, i am really trying to unwind.

easier said than done, however...

out of the blue

overnight, a surprise - it snowed! a thin blanket covering the green grasses, pale clumps on tree buds, white mantles over blooming azaleas. all my daffodils are bent down under the weight of the heavy wet snow. this snow melts fast, though, and will soon be gone. here it clusters and drips off a forsythia branch, already in bloom. more snow showers tonight and perhaps tomorrow. ah, me. here's to new england springs!

remnants

who was here? looks like some forest critter had a picnic on this old tree stump just at the edge of the woods. i love to find signs of life like this in the woods but am continually surprised and a bit disappointed that i rarely happen upon the animals that are leaving them.

more tree flowers

above: this must be of those red maple flowers, i think, and still on the tree. miniscule pink flowers with stems and stamens and petals and pistils. don't forget to click to make it show big! what this is below, i do not know. all i know is that i found it on a tree by the side of the road, not very far from this place.

tree flowers

late this afternoon, i wandered to the woods with camera in hand. the forest floor is still covered with the browns and grays of winter but tiny shoots of verdant green have begun poking through the remains of last year's leaves. and everywhere i walked i saw the vibrant pink of these tiny flowers, the spent precursor to the emerging leaves on the red maple trees, high above my head.

clay date

long have i waited for the day when i could introduce clay to the little girl. our first session was spent making blue and yellow hot dogs, snowmen, and pancakes. note the rolling technique, pictured. i think she's got it! it was good grammie fun - and thankfully, she never once tried to explore the clay by tasting it!

lupine

i love the way young lupine leaves catch and hold the raindrops. it's the real reason i have so many of these plants in the garden.

first flowers

every spring, these crocuses are a surprise. they're right in the middle of the lawn and i swear i didn't plant them there. how they materialized remains a mystery but i sure do love to see them come back year after year after year.

fun with food

somewhere on the internet, probably on a blog (one of yours?), i read about carrot flowers. so easy to make: just cut wedges all around the length of a carrot before slicing. they added a festive spring touch to the easter dinner table. much prettier than the carrot pennies i usually serve. lest you think the wedge parts of the carrots will be wasted, they'll go into the pea soup i'll make from the easter ham bone in a day or two. pea soup is an old easter tradition around here. and carrot flowers is a brand new one!

easter sunday

happy easter!

easter tale

here's my small collection of rabbits, normally scattered about the house, but reunited each easter for the day's celebration. now, i could tell you a tale about rabbits - but a far better easter story is one i blogged three years ago. yes, it's one more click, but if you like intrigue, you'll love this story........

if you care to comment, please do so here, not there!

if you celebrate, happy easter.

if you don't, happy spring.

april first

with so many good april fools' jokes on the internet, you'd think i might have been in a suspicious frame of mind today. but seeing this under the windshield wiper of my parked car struck momentary fear in my heart, even though i knew i wasn't illegally parked. turns out it was a promotional gag by an establishment in the area. i was so impressed with their creativity and the fact that they "got" me, i considered stopping in to tell them. but april fool's on them - i'll just blog about it instead!