More signs of spring arrived the last two days as more birds returned like the wrens, swallows, orioles, grosbeaks and the little hummingbirds. Rose-breasted grosbeak males actually sit on the eggs for a few hours during the day but the female does most of the egg incubating.
Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak
As spring days continue, these dairy cows are enjoying some green grass and new dandelion leaves after a long winter.
Pasture Time
A sunny spring Sunday was a good day to check out the new wildflower blossoms, such as the trilliums, wood anemones, yellow trout lilies and the bright yellow of the marsh marigolds.
Yellow Marsh Marigolds
The warm sunny Saturday had a lot of people out enjoying the opening of the fishing season. But while anglers were trying to entice a fish on their hook, some farmers were out working their fields for spring planting.
Preparing for Planting
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
