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!

Maintenance

Living among a lot of trees, as we do, provides different activities...not only the watching of songbirds, hawks, or squirrels... but also the doing of lots of maintenance.

Our oldest son Rick...Alivia's dad...often walks back to visit...

.



and many times...ends up offering a helping hand...
.



Note their same body stance...

how they move in unison
.



how they hold their arms in space...
.

and how they twist and turn their face.
.

all done while maintaining.....this over grown place!

~

Some maintaining involves professionals.

The removal of branches

that have grown too close to the electric lines is

thankfully...

...the responsibility of the electric company.
.

They have to go dangerously high sometimes!
.

Then sometimes a nice tree like this gives us a problem...

...like blocking the satellite reception...
.

and someone here...has to go dangerously high to trim the branches.
.

Eventually though.....that same nice tree had to be reluctantly cut...
.

Notice how it landed squarely on top of another stump...


and.....how extremely tall.

.

and of course...a young deer, just like a child...had to investigate.
.

Sometimes...Mother Nature herself causes an unsafe problem...

here a large oak was damaged by high wind.....
.

and again reluctantly...we had to remove a nice tree.

.

On the bright side though...
.

it let in more cheerful sunshine.
.

Like Sunshine

This morning started off as a bitterly cold, dreary day,

but gradually brightened with sunshine, as the day progressed.

Sometime after 12:00 noon, my day got even brighter,

when my granddaughter Amanda stopped for a visit.

Amanda is in her second year of college, copy editor of her

college newspaper, and very good at creative writing.

Her creativity started at a young age.

This is the innocent young child.....

that wrote poems making fun of her gramma's cake!

Later in her young life she graduated to pulling

very creative pranks.

Late one night without my knowing it, she stole an

old stone squirrel from my flower garden.

I started receiving ransom notes through the mail,

along with pictures

of the threatened

and tortured squirrel!

Even though knowing,

that I thought it very funny,

she never let on,

so I was convinced it had been done by

my older grandson Dustin.

This went on for about a week and then Amanda slipped up...

she sent a photo with her baby sister at the bat!

Then the squirrel mysteriously reappeared one day-

^

.....covered in band-aids!

Amanda

Before leaving, Amanda mentioned she had finished reading

"Prodigal Summer"- so I gave her my copy

of "The Shack" to take home.

Amanda's visits are like sunshine.

and then.....

It wasn't an hour later and I had another visitor

to brighten my day. My granddaughter Katie came by.

Remember she is our expert confetti maker.

Katie is a sophomore in high school and has a babysitting

job right after school, but today it was canceled, so I benefited.

Katie is a sweet, bubbly, happy, young teenage girl.....

.

.......just don't get in her way when she's mad or driving!

.

Sunday is her birthday!

Katie

Katie is like sunshine to me too!

~

Then-

Later my daughter Annette stopped by

to give me a book, so now I'm reading "Paper Daughter"

by M.Elaine Mar.

Annette is sunshine in my life too!

~