The cold and dark days of this spring have the wildflowers huddled up and they refuse to open their petals to the missing sun. Maybe tomorrow’s promised sunshine will allow them to finally open up and show their pretty colors.
Spring Refusing to Come for the Spring Beauties
Last night’s evening calm and setting sun before the thunderstorms rolled in after dark. No hint of clear skies today with more rain on the way.
Evening Calm
For this Mother’s Day, I won’t be able to give my mom the usual flowers I give her, one of the early flowers which bloom in the area, the pretty dandelions. Due to the lack of many flowers blooming yet, the honey bees in my yard need the flowers more than my mom does this year.
When honeybees first emerge from their hives in the spring they have typically depleted their winter stores of honey and pollen needed for daily nutrition to sustain their life and “mom’s flowers”, the dandelions provides one of the first important sources of pollen and nectar, prior to when the other spring nectar sources become available.
So mom will have to look at her Mother’s Day flowers as a picture only this year since the honey bees were on the dandelions yesterday.
Mother’s Day Flowers
Red wagon wheels at least add some color against the grass greening up since the wildflowers are slow in opening up, but it sure would be nice if the wheels could roll in some sunny, warm days.
Rolling into Spring
After a rainy day yesterday, the new calves probably would appreciate a warm, sunny day to dry out and to take a nap in the sun.
Springtime Calves
The wildflowers seem to be having a hard time opening this cold spring. The Bloodroots have had their blossoms up for a week but they have been closed up tight and there was only a little sun out yesterday so they still haven’t fully opened up yet. But it was windy and some of the petals were being blown away even if they haven’t displayed their blooms completely.
Emerging Bloodroots
With a week without snow, the grass is finally starting to green up. And now if the temperature would warm up, you could spend a lazy afternoon at the pond listening to frogs and watching the dragonflies darting around.
Springtime at the Pond
This cat is hiding under some old machinery, but she isn’t watching for mice or birds. She is watching for some human to come by and tickle her tummy. And shortly after I took the shot, she attacked my camera and got my lens all dirty so I couldn’t take pictures of new baby calves.
On Watch Duty
The sunshine on the weekend (and all the April rain) has allowed the Sharp-lobed Hepatica to open, which is the first wildflower to open in my woods. The bloodroots are following closely but the Hepatica, in the range of colors from white, pink, blues and violet, are the first to present new color on the woodland floor.
But being the first blossom open has it downfalls, as the first blossom which opened was totally bugged chewed, so I had to wait until a few more blossoms opened before taking a picture.
Sharp-lobed Hepatica
With the promise of sunshine for day, it gives a ray of hope that spring may come, even if the temperature is still chilly. Nestled in the rolling hills of southwestern Wisconsin in Seymour Township, Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church was built in 1869.
Our Lady of Hope
