What do you call it?

Daffodil?

Jonquil?

Narcissus?

Yes.

We call them all those names.

All it takes is one warm day

Just a little sunshine and one warm day... and suddenly there are flowers everywhere!

Tooth to tell

The horse and I have something in common. We've both had our teeth cleaned recently.

The horse is not fond of the procedure. Does he look suspicious?
He knows something is going to happen.
First he gets shots.
One of the shots is to make him relax.
It makes the horse so relaxed that he can't hold his head up. So it has to be balanced on a sling on top of a pole. The vet is the dentist. He cranks open the horse's mouth with a metal device that holds it open while he works. The vet wears a light on his forehead to help him see inside the mouth.
He smooths down the points on the horse's teeth with a long power tool.
He takes off plaque with a tool that looks like a wrench.
He puts his whole hand and part of his arm up in the horse's mouth to feel which teeth need treated.
Afterwards the horse can barely stand up. I make him stagger around with me so that he can walk off the effect of the shot. This takes about an hour.
I think I prefer my dentist.

Birdbrain

Every year the same thing happens. Some bird catches a glimpse of its own reflection in one of the windows. The poor deluded creature thinks it is seeing another bird. It challenges the reflection - and spends days attacking the window to drive off the "other bird".

This year the tapping and flapping at the window has begun early.
Flop! Thud!

Over and over and over again.

Over and over you hear "Wink! Che-Wink!" piping outside just before the wings hit the window.
Usually the bird is a Robin or Catbird.

Usually the bird is a male.

Not this year.
This year it is a female Towhee attacking the glass.

Broken

This is what the bird feeder looked like this morning. It is supposed to be an indestructible feeder.
The company that made it will give you a new one if it breaks.
I'll bet they are sorry for that guarantee! I have already gotten three or four free new feeders just like this one.
They just didn't know our raccoons!

Socks is supposed to lose weight

Diet? I do not approve of this "diet" thing.

The hawk returns

I looked out the bedroom window and saw this character watching the pond. I think it is the same hawk that was catching frogs last year. I wanted to get a closer look so I crept out the front door and snuck around the house. I hoped he wouldn't see me until I was close enough to get a good picture.
But when I tiptoed around the spruce tree the branch was bare.
It's hard to sneak up on a hawk!

Splurging on spurge

I planted a few little spurge plants a year ago. A friend gave them to me.

I made a little pocket of dirt in the rocks by the pond for them. They liked that spot.

They liked being in the full sun all day.

They liked being in the rocks.

So they spread.

This year I have hundreds of spurge plants coming up all along the side of the pond.

They are just little purple/red spots now.

Huuummm, they seem to be spreading into the grass too.

I think we have a spurge surge.

Here's the culprit

At night a loud PEEP! PEEP! sounds across the pond. It's one of the first sure signs of spring.

That loud noise is made by a very tiny frog.

There he is - the Spring Peeper.

Weeded here, blooming there

I've cleaned out the garden around the Narcissus in back. Now you can see the buds showing a little color.
But up in the tangled weeds by the shed, where I haven't done any work, the first yellow blooms are showing.

Cleaning out the Iris bed

The Winter ice and snow and cold have turned the old Iris leaves white. It is time to pull them out so that the new plants can grow.

I like a job like this - I can really tell that I've done something when I have finished it.
Now I can hardly wait until May when the Iris flowers will bloom.

Sunshine

Today the sun is shining. It has gotten warm enough to go outside without a coat (but you still want to wear a long-sleeved heavy shirt). More flowers are popping out.
We can hardly wait for it to be really Spring.

First flowers

The snow is melting. The big piles are shrinking. Underneath the snow some plants have been growing.
When they finally emerge into sunlight, they open up --
the first crocus!