Many Happy Returns!

It is a very April day here!  Rain, thunder  and minor flooding in the usual places are all part of the spring experience here.  Yesterday was different.  It was so nice that spending time outdoors was simply irresistible!  

One of the things on our long, long list of outdoor activities was to clear out the rest of the bluebird houses.  This house had bluebirds in it last summer.  You can tell from the grassy nest.  The little balls of chewed up milkweed fluff indicate a mouse nest.  It can be quite exciting to evict these unwanted winter residents.  No one was at home here so it was easy to just flip the contents into the trug.  I have been seeing bluebirds so it's great to have this done!  In several of the other houses the rodent residents were at home.  Those evictions were far more exciting.  There was a lot of dancing around and squealing going on but Ed and I have been together for a long time and he is used to it. I might have terrified the mice.    Boy, those furry little critters are fast!

We did get some chores done, but I spent some time looking for signs of my returning plants.  I was so happy to see my pink trout lilies poking up through the leaves.  Red now, the leaves will turn green with spots one they have been in the sunlight for awhile. That is a Johnny Jump Up leaf to the right.  Soon happy little purple faced flowers will make me smile.

The shooting stars have broken through. One plant has been pushed up by frost or pulled right up out of the ground by deer  and is showing its roots.  Next time I am out there I will  replant it.

I'm always delighted and a little surprised  to see my squirrel corn come up in the spring.  Perhaps it got its name from the unusual flowers, but the name conjures up an image of the red and grey squirrels quarreling over who gets to eat my plant first!

I think this bright red plant is my single peony emerging.  I could be wrong, but I sure was happy to see it yesterday!

This is a Sea Holly plant.  This plant spreads by self seeding.  It attracts an amazing variety of pollinators to the garden and the lavender flowers last for a very long time.  I don't like to thin these out unless I have to .  This one can stay.  The tiny sedum plants you see here are from seed.  The original plants were given to me by Thelma H., a good friend of my mother. They are another reason to make me smile.

Last but surely not least are some of my Pickwick crocus flowers. April showers bring May flowers, but they bring April flowers too!

Garden Friends

We had  a frost this morning, but after the sun warmed thing up, Ed and I decided to go  to work on the bed down by the road.  We loaded up the tractor cart with all the tools we thought we might need.  It is a somewhat long walk back up the lane to the house from here.  Up by the house the garden is dust dry.  Here with the different soil there is still some moisture.  We worked at weeding and cleaning up the Siberian iris.  Ed transplanted some King Alfred daffodils.  There were lots of dandelions to dig out.  While I love to see a field of dandelions instead of a pristine grass lawn, I hate to have them growing in my flower beds.  It's a good thing successfully digging them out taproot intact brings such a joyful feeling of conquest.  Ed and I  had a great morning working together!

You can see that we have bluebird boxes located here.  Just the other day I took a peek to check on the residents of the bird house.  Sometimes I feel a little guilty about disturbing our house guests, but this time I was so glad  I did.  The box contained a dead tree swallow.  Ed removed it for me and as you can see the tree swallows are back.  They let me get very close to take a picture.  I was pleased since I have often watched these birds attack the neighbor's cat.  They are not afraid to buzz people either, but they paid little attention to us today. The second box is empty. The bluebirds seem to have moved on.  It is their usual pattern.  The insects that they need to feed their babies are scarce when we don't get much rain.  Last year when the drought period ended they came back.  Perhaps this year will be the same!