May Day was a holiday celebrated more in the past centuries, with May baskets and the May pole dancing. But at least there are finally some flowers blooming that could have been used to fill a May basket if it was a tiny basket since many of the early blossoms are tiny like these Spring Beauties.
May Day Spring Beauties
The trees are just beginning to bud out so soon the sunsets will not set over bare limbs until late fall again.
End of April Sunset
When the electricity went out this afternoon, it felt like living in a hundred year old log cabin except the cabin would have had a wood stove or fireplace to heat the home so it was a good thing it wasn’t real cold out. It is a reminder how dependent to electricity we have become and discover all the things we can’t do or use without it.
Log Cabin
April showers are supposed to bring May flowers, but the rain today was just running down my driveway and overfilling my pond. The extra running water didn’t look as pretty as this water falling at Echo Dells.
Flow at Echo Dells
Today the birds sounded like they were inside my house as it was finally warm enough to open the windows for the first time this year. And the wildflowers seemed to soak up the warmth too with wood violets, bloodroots, and yellow trout lily blossoms finally opened. And the earlier opened hepatica blooms seemed to gain more color on this warm afternoon after the morning rain.
Sunny Hepaticas
In the summer, there was leaves on the trees and there were people visiting the Holy Hill Basilica, but on this spring Sunday the trees bare and the shrine ground are empty to slow the spread of the Coronavirus.
Summer at Holy Hill
The sunny day was enjoyed by the birds and critters, especially by my little chipmunks, who seemed to be everywhere in the woods and in my yard and even sneaking into my garage. But those “cute” chipmunks haven’t found any flowers on my porch to dig up as I might not waste the effort trying to keep the flowers in a pot when they are so determined to unearth them.
Crafty Chipmunk
Arbor Day is a special day that is set aside to raise awareness of trees and I was real aware of all the limbs I was picking up off my lawn. And the birds were aware of the trees as the warmer weather had a lot of courting occurring in the tree branches. There was flashes of blue as courtship was happening among some bluebirds. And the northern flickers were rather vocal as they chased each other among the branches.
A Northern Flicker
As I was picking up sticks off the lawn near the edge of the woods, I spotted the leaves of the trillium plant poking up, although the leaves haven’t unfurled and no bud showing yet. But with the deer around my place, I rarely get to see the great white trillium blossoms as they must be rather tasty to the deer and I generally only see stems were a flower should have been.
Great White Trillium Blossoms
One suggestion for this year’s Earth Day was to take a walk (while social distancing) and discover native plants. I did notice a few leaves of native plants but my outdoor activity today consisted mainly of picking up limbs and branches that wind gust from a few days ago and the heavy snows all winter brought down. It almost seemed like more limbs on the ground than remaining on the trees since I didn’t get finished picking them all up off the lawn today.
Tree Limbs
