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.

~~~~~

flowery friday

It began raining last night, and I woke to a damp and drizzly, raw and still-rainy world. But it wasn't very cold, and it wasn't at all windy, so I just waited for a break in the drizzle to go out and give the goats a hearty meal to keep their spirits up.

While waiting for the goats to eat, I took a few quick pictures of flowers. Yes, flowers!

Here is one of the bloodroot plants again. It decided to stay wrapped up and tucked in today, which is exactly how I felt when I woke up and saw the weather.

And here is forsythia - or yellow bells, which is what my blogfriend Tipper says they are called in Appalachia. I think of them that way now, too. Perfect name.

These daffodils got plastered, face-first, to the ground by the rain. They look quite comfortable indoors now, and are the brightest spot in the house.

And here are some of the first Vinca blossoms. Soon there will be a subtle carpet of vinca flowers. Less subtle if I get out there and rake the leaves off, and maybe I will, but it's not a priority task so no promises there.

Here's one more.

Do you recognize these?

They are red maple flowers.

There is a scattering of lovely pink and red all over the ground,

and it is even more apparent on a rainy day.

Yesterday - before the rain - I watched Tsuga and Fern carefully eating every maple flower that had fallen on a large rock. I've never seen the goats do that before. Always something new in Goat World!

~~~

Here's to the start of a great weekend for all.
What's happening in your neck of the woods?

~~~~~

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!

~~~~~