Last Friday, temperatures were in the 50’s and the sun was shining bright and it felt like spring had finally sprung. I went on my first bike ride of the season around our “country block” which is 9.3 miles. We start at our house and ride north, then east, then south, then west back home…we are out of town within a mile so we are mostly riding in the country, on paved roads. It felt wonderful.
The name of the bike is Verve, made by Trek.
The best part of this first ride of the season…I was on my new electric bike! I was surprised on my birthday when I unwrapped a box with a picture of this bike I’ve wanted for a season or two. We picked it up in town on Friday. The bike is a beautiful coral color. I’m excited and I look forward to this biking season. Thank you Gary.
They are a sight to see. They come by the hundreds this time of year. They fly overhead about same time each day. If I had to plan an event around their appearance it would be somewhere between 4 and 6 pm. They are loud…so loud that I can hear them honking as they fly overhead even when I’m in my house with the windows closed. When I’m outside, I can also hear the flapping of their wings. It’s a wonderful sound.
They are Canadian Geese. They are beautiful to see in the air and on the water. However, if they are on land, in the yard, or on sidewalks they will leave a horrible mess behind. But at Pond Three, the blacktop path is clear and the hundreds of Canadian Geese land and stay on the water.
Photo taken one fall day of Pond Three, 2018.
Our neighborhood has three ponds (I have affectionately named Pond One, Pond Two and Pond Three) with a walking path around them. A few geese hang out in the ponds all year…in the spring it’s fun to watch the goslings as they swim across the water all lined up in a row, in-between mom and dad.
Ten little goslings all in a row. Photo taken in May, 2018.
The adults can be very protective of their offspring and hiss loudly if you get too close when they are out of the water and on the edge of the pond. It can be a bit intimidating having very large birds walk toward you hissing.
Photo taken in May on Pond Two.
While on a walk last spring I came upon a women using a cane. I smiled and said hi as I passed her by. Soon after, I came upon two adult geese with their young on the edge of the path. As two adult birds started hissing and walking towards me I stopped to wait for my new path companion so we could walk by the geese together using her cane to wave in front of us for a little protection.
Photo taken earlier this fall on Pond Two.
Last evening the rising, full moon was huge as we walked around Pond Three. It was stunning. The pond was already full of geese but more geese kept coming, flying over our heads and landing in the pond…their silhouette in the dusk-colored sky was breathtaking. We stopped in awe for several minutes just to watch the magnificent sight. (I didn’t have my iPhone along for a photo,)
My husband asked the question…do the geese stop at Pond Three because it has open water, or does Pond Three have open water because it attracts hundreds of geese? I don’t know the answer but I do know they are beautiful and strong and noisy…we wondered if they make noise all night long?
Soon the Canadian Geese will be on their way again, flying to southern parts of the United States. They do seem to enjoy this stopover in Northfield and I’m glad.
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 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.
Each year I get excited to see the Dwarf Trout Lily blooming in Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park, one of the only places in the world where it lives. It is a federally endangered forest wildflower found only with in 275 square mile area in Rice and Goodhue Counties, MN. Because it is found in only this small area the dwarf trout lily is considered a Minnesota “endemic” – i.e. a species that grows in Minnesota and nowhere else on earth.*
That is why I go looking for this flower each spring and why I get a thrill seeing it each year. I have found a spot where one blooms so I can find it easily even when the volunteer naturalists are not around.
The Dwarf Trout Lily are miniature…the flower is about the size of a little finger fingernail (therefore very hard to spot.) The common white trout lily is much bigger and is widespread throughout the park.
The forest floor had other spring flowers blooming…the trees were budding out and the colors can only be described as “spring greens” sprinkled with white, pale pinks and yellow. It’s so beautiful.
Marsh Marigolds
And then on campus I couldn’t help but notice these bold red tulips near a budding Red Bud.
Red Tulips by the Red Bud
Ah…spring flowers.
*Biological Report #18 of the MN Natural Heritage Program Section of Wildlife, MN dept. Of Natural Resources.
