WILD FLOWERS AROUND THE POND TODAY

Today I'm photographing wild flowers that are blooming this last week of May, as I walk around the pond. 

May Apples are showing themselves along the driveway at the pond's edge.  The flowers on each plant, or blossoms, will produce a green oval shaped fruit that can be eaten.  Most of the time the "apples" disappear before we think about tasting them, eaten by the critters.

Blue Eyed Grass - One of my favorites, this short lived little flower blooms at the top of a single blade of grass.  It closes up in darkness and opens back up in light.  Blue eyed grass reminds me of my brother, Vern, who taught me the name of it when I pressed wild flowers for a biology class at school long ago.  Yellow Cinquefoil - Bottom left in the photo below is a "take me for granted" kind of invasive little weed that doesn't get much attention.

Wild Strawberry Blossoms - Sweet, tiny, and shiny red berries will be setting on soon.

As I continue my walk on the trail around the pond I see blue eyed grass growing everywhere.  It must be a grand year for this wild flower, with all the right elements.

Yellow Lily Pads - The flowers are up and showing themselves now amidst the pads and are taking over the pond.  What would a pond be without lily pads and dragonflies in springtime and the occasional smacking noises of a bluegill feeding on the water's surface.

I stop for a minute and sit on the bistro bench to take off my knee boots and pull up my poor socks that have managed to slip down around my toes.  Such little nuisances of life!

On the last stretch of my trek around the pond I remember to check under the spruce tree for the pink lady slipper, the only one here, the flower that magically appeared in this same spot many years ago.  And here it is in full bloom today!  One spring, a deer ate it off just after it bloomed so I put some wire fencing around it that's not aesthetically pleasing, but saves the flower.  This is the first time in three years the slipper plant has decided to bloom.  I treasure it!

EMPTY NESTS - FULL NESTS

It's that time of year when parents watch their children graduate from high school and know that soon their nests will be emptier.  It's a joyous time, a time to feel proud, and a time to feel sad because we know we can never go back and live those moments over again with our children.

Now, for the birds, spring is a time when nests are full! I've noticed birds of all kinds flying through the yard and woods lately, so busy making nests and filling them up.  In the past week I saw a hen turkey walk through the yard twice, quickly picking up bits of gravel off the driveway to fill it's crop, and then hastily marching off into the woods.  It made me think that the hen turkey must have a full nest not too far away.

Here's the hen turkey that's been strutting through my yard lately, always in a hurry!

I've also observed a few new nests around home without looking too hard.  My friend, Roxann, spotted one the other night on our walk around the pond.  It looked like a soft, fluffy, out of place "what ta heck is that?" thing popping out of the upper branches of a young popple tree, but it turned out to be a freshly made Baltimore Oriole nest.  Often, I see oriole nests in the fall after the leaves have fallen off the trees that I never noticed in summertime.  It will be fun to observe this new nest that is right out in the open.

A Baltimore Oriole nest in a young popple tree.

I found another nest today in the middle outer branches of a young red pine tree.  It looked as though it was not quite finished as I could see daylight through it.  A minute after I spotted the nest, a tiny yellow goldfinch landed in the tree near it.

This could be an unfinished goldfinch nest.

Little tree swallows have been busy eating bugs as they hover back and forth over the surface and the sky above our pond lately.  They nest in small holes in the dead trees near the water.

Tree Swallow

It's an exciting season, watching birds return, turtles and frogs awaken, and noticing how busy every living thing seems to be.

Spring is truly a season of change for all, humans included - whether it be a full nest soon, or an empty nest!

GREEN TAMARACKS AGAIN!

It's been seven months since I sat with my journal amid the tamarack trees southwest of our cabin and wrote an October 2014 blog post in the little forest that could...

Today, rather than golden needles, I'm enjoying soft green ones as I snuggle up in my winter coat this chilly spring day... and I'd like to share them with you.

Temps are in the 40s and I hope tonight that our apple, blueberry and cherry blossoms don't freeze.

The burnt orange pine needles from last fall and falls passed, blend beautifully with the new green needles that have returned slowly to the trees in the past few weeks.  Although the ground is wet from recent rainfalls, it's nice and dry sitting next to this larger tamarack tree.

If you've ever gotten up close to a tamarack and touched the needles you'll know they are not sharp edged like spruce or pine.   Rather, the needles are soft and tender to the touch.  They want you to remember them and come visit again,  kind of like Grandma when she bakes your favorite pie or chocolate chip cookies.

Winds are swishing through the trees and birds are singing all around me as I journal.  The only bird sounds I recognize are chickadees and crows.  Perhaps there are some warblers amongst them.

A deer trail makes its way through this woods following the easiest and most open route, the one I took.  The low hanging branches, twisted and gnarled together between each tree, make passing through our tamarack woods a little difficult, but well worth the effort. 

Here comes the sun, time to head home and check for wood ticks.  My knee boots help keep them from climbing up my jeans quite well. 

HATCHED!

On May 1st, in the wee hours of the morning, my husband noticed baby geese on the pond.  When all was said and done, those eggs that had been carefully tended for the past few weeks by mother goose produced six little chicks.  Yesterday, I was able to snap a few photos of the new family before they ventured off down Tom's Creek and away from the maddening crowd (my hubby and I and our daily walks around the pond).

A look at the empty nest revealed one lone, unhatched egg... just like last year.   I have no idea why all the eggs didn't hatch.  The full nest contained eight eggs, but I would say 75% is quite successful at that!  Most would agree in our area there are no shortages in the geese population.  It's just neat to experience their arrival first hand.

Our resident geese have a pattern of arriving in April, laying eggs within a week, hatching their young in about a month, and then heading down the nearby creek on their spring/summer journey in May to parts unknown.  Often they nest in exactly the same spot each year.  It's fun to ponder how they are able to find their way, or at least one of last year's geese if misfortune brings one of them a new mate, back here to our pond year after year. 

                            
Wood ticks are rampant now in our woods and yard!  We take a small empty plastic bottle (like a shampoo sample bottle) and fill it with cheap rubbing alcohol.  I like the wintergreen colored alcohol because it smells great.  This little bottle can be carried easily in a pocket and when we encounter a wood tick crawling up the leg we simply plop it in and shut the lid tight.  You can put over a hundred ticks in one bottle, and there is never an unpleasant odor.  Never flick a tick, it's easier to put it in alcohol than to crush it or burn it or scotch tape it, especially when you're outside appreciating the world around you.