Followed Me

Numerous white clouds floating under a bright blue sky...

appearing to be just above the tree tops...

.

.

were what greeted us Thursday morning...

making me want to hurry outside...

where I spied my first wild violet of the season...

.

...and there are many more violets yet to bloom...

along with my yellow pansies...

...but the pink hyacinth blooms just once!

Warm mornings in the spring usually mean...

a little work of some kind.

This morning's job...

is to create a (small) vegetable garden...

near the kitchen door.

I'm hoping the compost we made...

which needed to be spread...


makes our future plants grow as well as this...

very healthy wild dandelion I found while working!


Remember the beautiful white clouds and blue sky...


well...by Friday morning they looked like this...


and were accompanied with a sprinkling rain...

so...I took a walk...and you can follow me...in the rain!

I started out along the perimeter of the woods...
in the front yard...



and made my way down toward a small bridge...
made by Herhusband...over to a ridge...



...that leads to a small water hole...
which isn't big enough to be called a pond.



From there I took the lane...


that leads to our drive which goes by the cemetery...
before passing the field...into which I went!


The pink blossoms on the peach trees in the field
...were dressed with raindrops.



The pear blossoms wore them too!


Even though I was wearing my share of rain drops too...
I headed past the garden area lined with forsythia...
.


toward the winding creek in the woods...


where I spotted my first white trout lily of the season...


and this monument looking stump!

Deeper into the woods you can find Birch trees

with their distinctive white bark.

Notice the understory growth
of green shrubbery on the south facing hill...

now from the same spot...but turning left to the north

facing hill...it's less green...but will be covered with

shade loving fern later in the season.
.

I like the large Elm trees in this area with their

distinctive bark...and protruding roots...

on this trunk are engravings made years ago...

I think near the center I can make out 1930.
-click to enlarge-

Here you can see more raindrops clinging.

As I turned back up the hill to go home...

a bird started singing...it had been very quiet...
.

The singing moved from tree to tree as I walked...

I kept trying to locate the source and get a photo...

as I walked the path home...but failed.

Leaving the woods and in the yard...about to go in...

I heard the same singing.

Over in the trees...I just passed under...I spotted the source.

.

It was a Brown Thrasher...

I like to think it followed me home.

Together!

Days are slowly getting longer, here this second day of March

the morning's sunrise was at 7:08 a.m. Getting closer to "Spring"...

but...

.

March can surprise you, as last year when I saw this

.

through my front window .....

I'm hoping by the end of March, this will be the view from that window!

There is no school today, due to teacher's in service day,

.

so grandsons Andrew and Dylan will be spending it with us.

.

They can walk through the woods to get to our home.

.

I often go down to the creek with them.....

.

notice last year's trillium and fern on the hillside....
.

and these are some large old trees uprooted

.

during a storm a few years back....
.

on which they always climb

.


and explore, by reaching into places.....I never would.....


.



The logs come in handy to cross over the creek.....

.





or just to sit on....."together".....

.




together at the creek last fall.....
.



"together"

.


as they always seem to be.....





as you can see!



Together!

As I hope they'll always be!

~

In My Woods!

Being that I'm a morning person, I always catch the sunrises.

Despite the cold temperature, yesterday's sunshine drew me outside.

I first walked out to the field to view the clouds better-

but decided to head for the woods back behind the garden area,

where I eventually hiked for 2 1/2 hours.

Just as I was entering the edge of the woods-

a Red-tailed Hawk let me know I had disturbed him.

He gracefully circled overhead over and over, all the while

vocalizing his distinctive raspy "Kree eee arr" cry.

After the hawk flew off, I was so aware of the stillness of the woods.

I took a steep path that led down to the creek.

The creek bed was barely flowing with water-

I found a small heart shaped rock

in the creek bed,

a tree growing a large white ear,

and a moss covered rock that

I wish I could take home.

This is a photo from last spring of a decaying log which

woodpeckers seem to have visited often.

It now looks like this. Time changes everything.






While hiking back up the hill, I noticed this decaying tree

with it's exposed "clawing finger like" moss covered roots.






Then a dark shape catches my eye - it looks like -

a dragon?

But, on closer inspection it became -




Scooby Doo!

Remember the cartoon & song >Scooby Doo...Where are you?

Well, he's here -

- in my woods!

After finding him I went home.