Blooming Easter!!

Happy Saturday night - Happy Easter Eve.

Back in the olden days, I'd be all excited about the coming of the Easter Bunny tomorrow morning, but in reality the Easter Bunny came yesterday when I made a trip to Dury's and got myself a new camera bag. Well, it's not JUST the Easter Bunny, 'cause somebody I know has a birthday this week...

When I got my last lens, I outgrew my existing camera bag and am totally happy that when I got to Dury's, the exact bag I wanted was on sale for 30% off. I love when stuff like that happens...

We're still seeing our hummingbirds, but it's still just the same two males, and after filling up on "the juice" for the first few days after their arrival, they've become a little more fickle. They'll be back - we'll have a hundred of them by the end of the season, but after having so many photo opportunities with them last weekend, their recent peek-a-boo antics have been a little frustrating --

Patience, girl - that's the name of the game when it comes to those evil, little birds.

The photo at the the top of the post with the Easter greeting is of "Star of Bethlehem", a wildflower indigenous to this area. It popped up in the yard a few years ago and is a wonderful little spring-bloomer --

Blackberries are starting to bloom - before we know it, we'll be ready to pick'em and make cobbler.

After the bloomings of the early and wild iris, these are almost redundant, but they do put on a good show.

Giant Solomon's Seal --

False Solomon's Seal -- the leaves alternate instead of being matched pairs...

Regular-sized Solomon's seal - note the paired leaves...

The Painted Trillium are starting to stain pink with exposure to the sun.

Garbage Day

I love living in the woods, far away from the hustle and bustle of what I endure working in the city five days a week. Peace and quiet and privacy and solitude are all great things about "rurality", and I rarely feel envious of those living the city life. I do however, turn green with envy (and other things), on garbage day. I remember curbside trash pick-up, and I miss it. Jack misses it too, since he's the one who has to chuck the really nasty, heavy bags into the industrial-sized compactor at the Keltonburg Convenience Center.

Garbage day wasn't so bad before our old Explorer died. Jack was able to make garbage runs as needed during the week, pulling our little trailer. Now, a garbage run involves a trip to Mom and Dad's to borrow the pick-up and seems to have become a Sunday afternoon kind of thing, which is nice in the sense that we have an opportunity to visit with Mom and Dad but not so nice in the sense that garbage is a bad thing to have to deal with on a nice day, especially when the last week's weather has included both torrential rain and temperatures well into the 80's.

Today's quotable quote was stated by Jack, as we approached the convenience center, "Let's not throw up in front of Pig."

He was speaking of Danny "Pig" McGinnis, who staffs the dumpster hut at Keltonburg three days a week and every other weekend. Luckily neither of us threw up, nor did we have an encounter with Pig, who might be inclined to look down his nose at garbage as juicy as ours.

That said, we're on the lookout for an affordable "farm truck". Something for hauling garbage to the dump or a canoe to the water. If anyone locally knows of something like that for sale, please shoot me an e-mail or give us a call.

After dumpster duty, Jack and I pilfered through the yard with our cameras, and I was able to snap a few pretty good pictures.

Our native iris, which we relocated from the Page farm about ten years ago, are in bloom and beautiful this year. We have blooms a couple of different places in the yard now, and they are such a favorite. Many people think of the hybridized Bearded Iris, which seemingly everyone has growing in their yards, as the state flower, but in actuality, the state flower is much more petite, growing wild on rocky out-croppings and bare, sunny spots in Tennessee forests.

If The Great Fire was coming, and I could only save one variety of flower, this would be the one I'd throw into the big asbestos box.

Again this week as I prepared to photograph our beautiful white azalea, a spectacular butterfly decided to show up for an impromptu photo shoot. This time it was a Black Swallowtail -- 

She kept coming back.

She even stopped to take a little sun bath and didn't seem intimidated by Jack and I being so close with our cameras.

Then we saw this other neat little critter.

At first we thought it was some sort of bumble-bee, but it's apparently a moth of some variety. There's no visible stinger.

Its wings attach like a butterfly or moth's do, and it has long antennae.

And the mouth apparatus is like that of a butterfly or moth.

I'm going to look this thing up later and will post an update when I figure out what it is. 

Happy Week, everybody!!

First Hummingbird

Sunday as I was out rambling through the yard with the camera, I heard a familiar zzhizz for a moment and spotted the first hummingbird of the year on a jaunt, checking out the spots where feeders hung last summer. Upon hearing the news, Jack made the first batch of his famous "bird juice" for 2011, and two fresh feeders were hung.

This afternoon we spotted both "Jack Ruby", last year's dominant male, and a younger, smaller running buddy of his checking out the local watering holes.

 Let the madness begin!!

Last Minute Great Photos of the Weekend

 

Sunday Lens

After a few weeks of "the blues" - violets and hyacinths - how about a flash of some hot color?

I absolutely love these tulips, which we planted in our front yard near the road at least eight, maybe ten, years ago. I know tulips lose some size and vigor as the multiply, but ours were sparsely planted enough that they've stood the test of time fairly well. We scattered a few here and a few there over the course of a couple of years, adding a LOT one year when we found bulbs on sale for 75% off at Lowe's.

Once the tulips have bloomed, we generally know that Spring is here to stay, and considering that it's eighty-something degrees outside on the tenth of April, summer feels right around the corner. Unfortunately this kind of heat this time of year can only mean that big storms are on the way, and surely enough, severe thunderstorms are on the docket for tomorrow afternoon. We just had some last Monday - that's all too frequent, if you ask me.

Wherever you are tomorrow, be prepared to batten your hatches and hit the ditch.

Earlier today we took Moose for a romp in the field across from the house. Since he was shot back in the winter, we've been very careful about his "outside time", limiting him to a few hours after dark, which is a changing variable this time of year. Coming later and getting shorter with the change of season, dark doesn't always come as soon as Moose would like, so for the last week or so, we've been carrying him to the Webb's field for supervised romping around of the variety dogs simply can't get at the end of a leash.

He's not big on playing "fetch" per se, but he does enjoy running around and giving chase to whatever is thrown. Unlike Jimmy Moose will pay attention to commands and come when he's called, but whenever we encounter temptations like the barking of the weekend neighbors' dog, we put him back on the leash. After all there's no reason to set him up for failure. I think he understands these romps are a privilege...

Of course Diva and Carlton were in on the fun, too.

This afternoon we took another of our Sunday photo safaris, and I'm sharing some of my better shots with you.

On the Sink Creek portion of our junket, we encountered these sweet-smelling little flowers. I'm not sure what they are, but they were growing in boggy shade and smelled delightful.

Phlox and fire-pinks are some of my favorite Spring wildflowers.

This violet growing by itself in a little pile of gravel was quite striking.

Mustard in bloom is one of the yellowest things in the world.

Sink Creek from the bridge at Barnes Mill.

Jack spotted a huge water snake looking for a place to sunbathe.

There's nothing like a country road in Spring.

One sees the most interesting things.

Yes, that's a guy playing drums.

Like I said, "interesting..."

Have a great week, everyone!

Out - With Camera

Jack and I took a short photo-cruise today, since the weather was so nice -- 

I'm a sucker for old barns... I love the roof-line on this one.

The graffiti on the bridge said "JACK IS BACK". I never knew he was gone.

Stop. And I'll shoot.

Spring has come to the countryside.

Kids were out doing their "spring things". We ran into this nice, young man walking along the road by Sink Creek. He'd caught three fresh trout, and let us take his picture, but he didn't offer to share his catch.

This kid was playing in the creek with his four-wheeler and his boogie board. In swim-trunks. Yes, today was warm, but the water had to have been breath-takingly cold. This is a young-man who is more than ready for summer-time. 

Yesterday was Mule Day in Columbia. In these parts, any sunny day is Mule Day.

Diva is enjoying warmer weather.

Our Japanese Maple is quickly putting on new growth, and upon further inspection, a tiny spider is taking a sunbath on the tip of one leaf.