Bloom Time

Each year, when the exuberance of spring happens, I think-"How could I ever leave this place?" It's just so very beautiful, and it gets better each year. I've been on this land now for about 35 years, moving in when I was a young bride, and now retired, Jim joined me, with his hard work in clearing the brush and cleaning up things, and how the place has changed!

When we moved here, the previous owners had used a lawn service who came out regularly to spray poison all over. The grass was green, and weed free, but there wasn't a bird on the place, and the mosquitoes were terrible! I stopped the expensive lawn service, worked in more natural ways, and the lawn is now a combination of amazing variety, from grass, to creeping charlie, violets, and all kinds of wild and growing things. The birds provide a constant joyous dance of color and life, singing us awake in the morning, and the owls wake us in the night with their curious questioning calls. As I write this, I can hear the robin singing his night time call, and see the bright yellow finch at the feeder, along with the brilliant red cardinal and his more sedate colored, but still beautiful mate, the brown toned female cardinal. There are also, hairy and downy woodpeckers, chickadees, and many more, crowding around to share the life at this great place. I can hear the Canada geese now, encouraging each other with their noisy honks as they settle into the wetlands behind us for the night time rest.

The field out back that started as rye grass is now a wonderful woods, working through its transition from sumac and brush, into a tall, quiet maple, poplar and hazelnut woods.
We made a path that we walk frequently, reading the animal tracks in winter, and just enjoying the place, all year long. Oak trees are making a strong inroad and you can see the changes as you wander our path through the quiet growth. It's an amazing place, and the birds keep the mosquitoes in check most of the time. The little magnolia bush outside the front door that used to be shorter than my 5 foot 3 has grown taller than the house, into a magnificent exhuberance of pink glory, and just today it arrived at perfection, driving me outdoors with the camera to capture it yet again.

For Mother's Day last year, my children gave me a weeping cherry tree, something I've wanted for years. I had no idea what a success it would be! The bees are just mobbing it, and so intent on harvesting their pollen that I could get up close and take this picture of one of the little workers burrowing into a blossom.

The forsythia are just glorious, and the daffodils that Mom gave me years ago, have come up everywhere with their star shaped faces shouting Spring is here. Out in the back corner, the old weeping willow tree that I planted over 30 years ago from a pruning left by the roadside stretches its pale green switches 25 feet into the sky.




My heart always just leaps with joy each year when this process happens, and I hope it'll never change. The only thing that's not happened yet to make this a perfect spring is-MORELS! We haven't found any yet. But soon now! Maybe tomorrow.