sunday snaps

It looked like rain early this morning, so I went straight outside and got the chores done right away. Not one of the goats moved as I went to and fro with hay and buckets, although a couple sort of mumbled at me in their sleep.

Then I gathered the flowers Most Likely To Be Plastered To The Ground and brought them into the house to enjoy: 

There is more and more color appearing everywhere.

We've had a couple of really hot days this past week,

and lots of plants began flowering:

Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris)

yellow bells (Forsythia)

Flowering and/or putting out leaves.

Red oak (Quercus rubra)

Sugar maple (Acer saccharum)

Usually around this time of year, a single hummingbird will appear at my window, hovering at eye level, letting me know it's time to hang a feeder. Yesterday I decided to put the feeder out as a surprise to greet the first hummingbird. And in the evening, when it was nearly dark, look who appeared:

Piper and I had only one good long visit to the pond and woods this week. It's a good thing we lingered that day, because it turned out to be the last day before the black flies began to bite. Now they are unbearable.

Piper (Scottish Monkeyhound)

We actually could have gone out yesterday (covered in bug spray) but I blew it. I was in such a state from the dozens of black fly bites I've already accumulated from head to foot, I did some online research and took a "non-drowsy" antihistamine tablet to try to get a little relief from the itching. Well, I don't know what the "drowsy" formula could possibly feel like! I gradually became a stumbling zombie, struggling to focus on even the simple task of cooking a pot of farro. I don't recall falling asleep at 3 in the afternoon, but woke at 630 PM thinking it was Sunday morning. Thank goodness I had turned off the stove before sitting down!

 So, no walk in the woods yesterday, and none today because it is indeed raining. It will take quite a bribe to persuade Piper to leave her couch even long enough to walk down to the letterbox with me.

I understand your feelings on this, Piper. Listening to the rain on the roof, I am feeling a tiny bit smug about getting the chores done by 5:30 AM.

In fact, it's likely to be a quiet, cozy day of puttering in the house. The full extent of my productivity may be making a meatloaf.

Cheers, readers! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend, wherever you are.

~~~~~

this golden april day

This last day of April is bright with the deepest of yellows!

The little rivulet below is bordered by a scattering of Caltha palustris, known here as "marsh marigold" but actually a member of the buttercup family.  It is startlingly bright against the still-brown forest floor: 

Also blooming today: forsythia, or what I now happily think of as "yellow bells," thanks to my blog-friend Tipper of Blind Pig and The Acorn, a wonderful site devoted to all things Appalachia.

Although I am New England born and bred and have traveled through only parts of the lovely and vast Appalachian region of the eastern US, the comments and conversations on Blind Pig always make me feel like I'm sitting at the kitchen table with a group of neighbors.

As you can see, the maples behind the yellow bells have not leafed out yet.  But they are blooming...so it won't be long now!

~~~~~