Promises and Changes

April's sunrises have been golden at times...

strikingly bright...with vivid pinks and blues

...or just peaceful with soft pastel hues.

Monday's sunrise was like a promise of things to come...

just like this hummingbird feeder

shouted "Summer" to me when I first saw it.

My back porch was in need of it...

because I know the promise of warmer days...

means the return of Hummingbirds!

The alternating sunny warm and cold wet days of

April have made things grow around here...

leading to the familiar summer sound of a...

lawnmower in use here by Herhusband!

The warmth and the rain has helped the Naked Ladies...



so called because the green foliage dies back...

without blooming...

with the promise of flowers...in late July...

when they change into this...




Meanwhile we have the wild violets to enjoy!




Between the rain showers I find time for small walks...

like the one I took last week with Alivia...



over to the ridge with the fallen tree...

that slowly sinks closer to the ground every year.

Most of the grandchildren have played on it.



I went there again this week.....alone...

well I thought I was alone...

but you're never alone in the woods...

there's always the promise of something near...



and this deer wasn't alone either...

I found time for a few photos of such things as ...

a perched Chipping Sparrow...

a Mocking Bird...

and an elephant...

.

or what I thought looked like one...

Can't you visualize the dark eyes...droopy ears...

and...

the lonnngggg trunk!

Since you saw the elephant...can

you now see the face on this rock in my garden?...

-photos enlarge-

Speaking of rocks...there's some in my house...

that look like this...

and if you're good at ...

changing them around...

I promise you...

the broken pieces...

change into this.

Speaking of broken...our van is parked

under the back porch...

with a broken brake line...

but Herhusband can fix it.

And speaking of back porch...I was out there

trying to capture the sun...

through the opening in this little

decorative feature there...

and later that day...guess what changed?...

the sun suddenly disappeared...

and it started to "hail."

It shows up better here...in the front yard.

With in 15 minutes...it just as suddenly...

changed back to this...

which leaves me no doubt about Nature's...

ability and promise...

to change this...

and this...

into this!

That's what April showers promise and change!

Miscellaneous

I thought some miscellaneous pictures

would do for a post today.

These are two Northern Flicker Woodpeckers that visit often.

These squirrels hang around and guard the trees like this all the time.

Here is a Pileated Woodpecker from the heavy wooded area
that surrounds us.



This fawn was aimlessly running down the yard straight towards me.




This was the smallest squirrel I've ever seen on
the property. The body of the bell is about 4 inches.



I think this chipmunk is wondering just how he can get that home !




A Scarlet Tanager could easily be mistaken for a Northern Cardinal.
We just have a few Tanagers, but at least 8 pairs of Cardinals.




This baby Bluebird peeking out was the last to leave it's nest, and
was offspring of the last Bluebird family to occupy it.

Here we have a Chickadee pulling fibers from a pair of drapes on the porch.

I've seen them in the past, pull hair from our sleeping dog's tail.

These are small Carolina Wrens from a nest on our porch.
They graduated to sleeping on this blind at night.

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird at a feeder on the porch.
Sometimes there's three or more darting around recklessly.

This small fawn was just a few feet away before running off.

A few baby foxes shyly come around once in awhile.

Unlike baby foxes, baby raccoons aren't shy, they even pose for pictures.

I want it to warm up so it will green up!

Hurry Spring!