Faye and I came home Sunday afternoon to 20-plus degree temperatures so we made the time to enjoy a Mill Street beer on the deck. We resolved to spend at least a little time outside every month of the year and make a portrait and this one was easy. Stella’s ears and forehead sneaked into the frame. Good thing we did this – we had about 4cm of snow last night and the current temperature is 1, if that.
Wild creatures endured, survived, a long, snowy, arduous winter. It felt good to be able to help a few of them. Now that spring is here they are bursting with energy and activity. There are nests to build, breeding partners to find and mate with, eggs to lay, hatchlings to nurture. The nyger seed feeder is visited throughout the day as the Goldfinches fuel themselves for this time.
Kendal soaks up warm sunshine.
Stella lay in the yard yesterday, the warmest day of the year so far, a Winnie the Pooh windy day, about 15 degrees C.
The goldfinches are just beginning to gain their summer plumage.
Spring can bring breezy days. This afternoon has been downright windy, a gust once upsetting things on our outside table. A windy day is good, it has tested the hoop house over the raised bed, the wind stirs up the air, makes the spruce and pine trees speak eloquently of spring, of warmer days ahead.
We live on (under) the Tundra Swans’ flyway between their wintering grounds on the US East Coast and their summer home in Canadian North. We eagerly anticipate seeing them every year, and our first sighting was almost two weeks ago. Beautiful, majestic birds, bringing inspiration and hope after a long and hard winter.
Our potted ornamental plants wait to be moved outside. They have been under artificial light inside, for months. One African Violet may not make it. Today is cloudy, near freezing, snowflakes falling, with a chill northeast breeze.
We wait, less than patiently now, for spring to arrive with its promise of pleasant evenings, sunny skies, mild times. However impatient we are though, spring will come in its own time and no sooner, when it is time, when it is ready. Much as I might prefer otherwise, patience . . .
The first Turkey Vulture of 2014 I photographed over Dresden. Not easy for you to see I know. They may be ugly up close but aloft they are graceful, a real pleasure to watch wheeling overhead.
A true sign of the turn of the seasons. The only snow that remains is the big snowbanks and what’s in protected shady areas.
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