What's your happy that it is spring?

Greg Martin wrote:We didn't have a name for him, but from now on I'll be calling him Chris :)

Sweet! The northern boundary of our property is also the southern boundary of the reserved land of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. As a minimal good-neighbor effort, I have dabbled with looking up the ojibwemowin words for various things. Porcupine is gaag. So I started calling 'him' that. Simultaneously, my daughter who was away at college, but excited to receive pictures of new animals on our new land, told me it looked like a Greg. The two names are so similar that we sort of use them interchangeably.

Going along with the nounization of the adjective...

I share a long unfenced property line with a neighbor who pays a company to spray weed-killer on her grass. In the spring the property line becomes clear even without the fence.

(This picture is from last summer)


Anyway, my springtime happy is seeing my lawn--er, my field of clovers, bugleweed, dandelions, etc. come to life.

seeing the Adobe Mountain Foothills Permaculture Experiment Experience (AMFPEE) Gopher tortoise emerge from its winter hibernation.

Counting my chickens apples before they have hatched set. Looks like a bumper year for blossom anyhow!

Blossom! Birdsong! Bees! Lambs!
Here trying to catch a swarm (later) in a small-ish beehive, strapped in the cherry tree.

Happy/not happy/happy/not happy, that is the question. Venus keeps telling me she *really* wants to sit on eggs. (Muscovy) She's been a good mother in the past, but she'd have to go into protective custody, which would make Bro very sad. (for about 8 weeks until the babies are big enough to go out with him and Venus.) And it will be more work when I'm trying hard not to add to the pile.

I can feel my resolve weakening ... I suspect Venus will win! She will be so happy!

In addition to the throngs of geese, duck, cranes, and other winged wonders flying about, getting the garden ready is a true sign that spring is well underway.  The first pass with the rototiller portends planting days soon to come....

I haven't seen the usual wildflowers, only rain flowers and verbena.

Our trees are just leafing out and many have not yet so I suspect they died ...

I feel last years late budding maybe what happened.