A mourning dove, I affectionately named Miss Dove, has a nest with two eggs in the honeysuckle vine growing on the trellis on our back deck. I step outside daily to say good morning to her and she has grown accustomed to me tending my flowers and changing the nectar in the hummingbird feeder that hangs right below her. She has hatched her two eggs. Now there are three crowded into their little nest and it’s a precious sight to see.
A good look at Miss Dove and her baby behind her. Her other baby is behind her and in front of the other youngin’.
Although she let’s me come close it’s still hard to capture a good photo with the branches in the way.
Green…spring greens…such beauty…everywhere you look. It’s dazzling.
And there is not just one color green but many shades of green.
A lily shaping up nicely.
Just think if everything green was the same color, tint or shade of green.
Greens in the garden.
Of course the same can be said for the color blue and red and purple and other colors – they all have different shades, but shades of green surround us and are so pronounced, especially in spring time.
Solomon Seal popping up in the garden.
Shades of green are on display for us all to see just by going outside.
My camera didn’t capture the shimmer in the tree tops.
Green is an amazing color.
Raindrops on lily leaves.
When my boys were little and coloring with crayons I explained that God created all the colors before Crayola made crayons. What fun to look inside a fresh box of crayons.
I love color…our brains like color…but right now I’m partial to green.
We have been blessed with some idyllic spring mornings lately: plenty of sunshine and blue skies, coolish temperatures and no wind. One morning I hopped on my bike and pedaled my way to a familiar nine mile loop outside Northfield. We call it “going around the block” (a large block!) There is a short trek on city streets and then long stretches of country roads with several hills to climb (and coast back down again thankfully).
The beautiful blue sky and country road, grass greening and trees budding.
In town, as I rode along, I saw a mother with her child out for an early morning walk already. I heard dogs barking and passed golfer’s golfing. Once out in the country it was quiet and still except for the birds singing and a rooster crowing. I biked past peaceful farms, ponies in a pen, open fields ready to be plowed and planted, and wind turbines – to remind me we’re in the 21st century.
These two wind turbines are owned by Carleton College and provide energy for it’s campus. St. Olaf has it’s own wind turbine on the other side of town.
On the first six miles of this ride only one car passed me. The last three miles traffic picked up on the country road heading back into town. One truck came up behind me on the crest of a hill and passed me – in a no passing zone. I couldn’t believe he’d pass when he couldn’t see over the hill. I’m thankful another car was not approaching in the opposite lane.
I rode past this tractor in the field but waited for a rest stop to get a photo…it’s hard to get on and off the bike just to take pictures, both physically and mentally, because I really want to stop and take them. I guess I need one of those cameras attached to my helmet.
Mostly it’s a tranquil ride – even when I’m out of breath climbing those hills. I’m grateful to have this route close to where I live. I can hop on my bike and be out enjoying the countryside in just a few minutes.
Spring is finally here and so begins the yard work. For the most part, working in the yard and digging in the dirt is fun for me…but spring clean up is a lot of work. We decided to do some trimming over the weekend.
We started with a tree in our front yard. Gary climbed the ladder to cut off a branch and noticed, there in the crook of the tree, my “missing” fairy. We surmised a squirrel grabbed the fairy from it’s secret place in my garden two years ago. The squirrel must have decided it wasn’t food after all, so he left it sitting up properly in the crook of a tree, watching over us all that time. It was a fun surprise to find this fairy-angel in the tree after two winters.
Although this is not the exact spot Gary found the fairy, it was sitting upright and up high in a crook of this tree.
Next, in our back yard there is a honeysuckle vine climbing a trellis on the deck and it was getting out of control, as honeysuckle vines tend to do. So this year we decided to trim it way back. We revved up the electric trimmers and started cutting back the vine when Gary spotted a bird’s nest with eggs in it. Hmmm…we had already started trimming so we decided to quickly finish and then get out of there with hopes that the mama bird would come back to the nest and tend to her eggs.
The mama mourning dove returned to her nest to protect her eggs.
Fortunately the mourning dove is back and sitting on her eggs in the nest. It will be fun to watch them hatch right outside our window.
I noticed the lone daffodil blooming on the side of our house. There are several daffodil bulbs planted there but they didn’t seem to make it through that last winter blizzard. Even so, the one bright, yellow flower is perky and brings joy.
April showers bring May flowers, but not April snow blizzards.
It is always a delight to discover fun surprises in nature. Some are so obvious and some so hidden. I am reminded to keep my eyes open for there is so much to see.
I received an invitation to a very special event. It was and adoption celebration but not of the “ordinary kind” that comes to mind. This was an adult adoption.
My friend, who is single and has never had children, befriended a young woman and was a loving mentor to her for several years.
Then the decision was made that my friend would adopt this young woman and they would become a family.
I loved the wording of the invitation and I congratulate Angie – now mother, grandmother and mother-in-law, and Karyssa – a newly adopted daughter, mother and wife.
They are calling this a Historic Blizzard – Saturday, April 14, 2018.
We have been out of town for three weeks and when we drove into our driveway at the end of last week it was disappointing to still have snow in our yard.
Our back deck, photo taken Sunday morning.
And then we heard the forecast…a winter storm warning. And this time they were right. 12-15″ of snow and strong winds were predicted, and it came. Lots of snow and sleet, and very strong winds swirling the snow around into drifts and corners and clinging to windows. They are calling this the Historic Blizzard because this is the middle of April.
Blowing snow covered our living room windows, photo take 4/14.We had several birds at our feeder during the storm.
We tucked ourselves in, sat near the fireplace, and waited out the storm. (Although we did go for a walk in the snow last evening…we couldn’t resist being out in it.)
We walked by Pond One…there was open water and a duck swimming.
This morning Gary plowed out our driveway and there is whiteness everywhere.
I saw my first robin on Sunday afternoon, along Jefferson Road. This is my first sighting this spring, and then I saw two more.
This photo was taken early spring, 2017, on Carleton Campus.
After an evening walk, not in the dark because of daylight savings time (another sign of spring), I saw two robins in our neighbor’s tree. I looked through our binoculars to confirm. They were a pair.
Other signs of spring on my walk: the snow is melting (and a lot more snow will melt this week when the sun comes out and the temperatures rise into 50*’s) and there was no ice on the paths. However, there were lots of puddles.
I heard many birds chirping, and I heard water gurgling… both wonderful sounds… and I saw a few ducks already enjoying the thawed portions of the pond.
Spring brings hope once again.
*I’m not sure foxes are a sign of spring but Saturday evening while it was dark, before daylight savings time began, we watched a fox walk down a city sidewalk and cross the street in front of us…I think he was lost.*
This was not the fox we saw in Northfield. This picture was taken summer 2017 in northern Minnesota. We didn’t think this fox looked too healthy, but it’s the only picture I have of a fox.
Last week it snowed one day, and then another, and then another and for some reason the snow mostly stayed on the tree branches making the world around us a winter wonderland. For me it was breath-taking. Everywhere you looked the trees were frosted. I tried to capture a few photos.
The first snow – ice crystals clinging to tree branches and glistening in the sun.The second snow – Evergreens along County Road 9.Second snowfall – we went snow-shoeing on French Lake.Overlooking fresh fallen snow on an open field.The third snow – walking in vehicle tracks on Crystal Lake.Chunks of ice carved out of Crystal Lake, preparing a hole for a polar plunge (which we did not stay to watch.)Continuing to walk all the way across Crystal Lake.Into the woods on the other side of Crystal Lake.A lone pine cone hanging on to a snowy branch.Stunning beauty all along the Highway 3. I can only imagine what it would look like with blue skies.Every branch (and every tree) is covered with snow.
My husband and I went camping in Itasca State Park. This park is a beautiful treasure in Minnesota. In this park, the headwaters of the Mississippi begin. We camped here with our boys when they were younger, but this year it was just my husband and I.
It’s always fun to say “I’ve walked across the Mississippi River.”
One afternoon we took off hiking on a trail from the campground, and I was in the lead. As we were walking along I noticed black in the treetops above me, on my right. I stopped to look and noticed there were two black cubs high in the tree…so then I thought…hmmm, where’s mama?
Tree tops (a photo w/o the cubs).
I looked to the left of the path and there she was, staring right at us. At that moment I couldn’t remember what I was suppose to do. We’ve been to so many parks and read so many signs telling one how to react to bears…black bears or grizzly bears… play dead for one and act big for another, but in this moment – when I needed to know – I forgot! So we stood there, and then slowly stepped backwards. The cubs climbed down the tree, walked over the path in front of us and joined their mama, all the while the mama kept her eyes on us. And we kept our eyes on her too!
The mama bear, keeping her eyes on us.
When the cubs were safely with their mama we watched them scamper off into the woods and we kept going on our hike, happy to have had a safe, and memorable, encounter with the black bears.
The sun was shining, the snow was glistening and the woods were calling. Fortunately, we had no where we needed to be so we headed out to Big Woods State Park to hike in the winter wonderland.
An inviting trail.A blanket of snow.Trying to capture the glistening snow.Over a bridge and through the woods. Clean, white, fresh snow.Ending our time with a walk through the campground.
My friend, who is single and has never had children, befriended a young woman and was a loving mentor to her for several years.
