Views of Spring

The twins have a week and a day until their school is out for summer!  The mornings have still been chilly and rainy, and with so few days left, I've tried to enjoy every single walk!

The new leaf pierced through the old leaf as it grew!

After reading the cookbook* that offered me new perspective, I look forward to this bush flowering each spring now!  And will probably forever associate it with the twins' fourth grade publishing party!

One of the trees at the twins' school looked so pretty, I had to try to get a picture!  It was so much better in person though.

When we got back from Emily and William's band concert, the tops of the trees looked like they were on fire!

And we spotted a rainbow!  If you look closely, you can see it in the other picture too!

The dew clinging to the grass seeds looked too cool.

Nicole gave me some sweet William last year, and it thrived!  It's so pretty, and green and healthy looking!  She said it might even flower this year! = )

New growth on this evergreen is a bright green color!

The moon was big and bright, long before the sunset.

I usually hear the woodpecker, but rarely see it.  These holes might be the work of a woodpecker?

I think all springs in Michigan are chilly, but knowing how short lived the morning walks will be this spring, has me thankful for each and every morning we do get to walk!

later days

 *The title is Big Heart, Little Stove by Erin French and while it seems strange that a cookbook could inspire me this much, it has been over a year, and I'm still benefiting from the read, so no regrets!

Spring!

The temperatures are finally improving, and all the plants are waking up, and we are seeing our neighbors again!  

I started cutting milk cartons in February, and while they were stacked up in my mudroom, I felt like there were so many of them, and they might just be junk, but once I used them to plant, I realized that I had nowhere near enough!

The moon setting and sunrise on an early spring day.

New growth!

A very still river.  It was so pleasant after a particularly windy, cloudy day, just 24 hours earlier!

Naked tree branches.  They were swaying the wind, and it made me want to take a picture.

Further into spring, the flowers are blooming!

The birds are out in force, and I've been seeing lots of squirrels and even the occasional bunny!

The shining sun and warmer temperatures have me wanting to go out and do fun things and visit new places (just like everyone else who managed to survive another brutal winter!)

later days

Spring Nature Pictures

So, these are more pictures from outside, that are not my garden. ; )

Grace collected some blossoms from our yard, and her friend's yard, since they were playing together that afternoon.  Her display was really pretty.  She says her favorite was the small pink one or maybe the cluster of white ones..

Dandelion seed spheres were prevalent for our first few warm walks to school in the morning.

Full tree & closeup.

Colorful seed pods!

Grace gave me a pretty blossom that she found loose on the sidewalk (probably from some of the beautiful hanging baskets around town.)

Dew!

Slug!

On another day, Grace gave me a heart shaped leaf!

The bunny was standing still, until I stopped, then it bolted.  So, it looks like a bunny blur!

This story is kind of sad, so if you don't want to be sad, just skip to the next paragraph.  So, there was a bush that we would walk by near the twins' school, and each day a very nervous bird would bolt from the bush.  I told the girls that I bet there's a nest in there.  Sure enough, Emily, during one of her afternoon walks with us, found a nest with eggs!  The next morning, Grace, Juliet, and I looked to see if the eggs were hatching, and they were gone. = (  I feel like maybe our sent on the bush may have alerted a cat or bigger bird to the nest? or maybe it was the nervous nature of the skittish bird that did it, but we were all saddened by the missing eggs.

Watching a slugs' reaction to a stick put in it's path.

One day I was at the Goodwill in Mason, and saw this weird yellow wall. Turns out, it was this field of vibrant yellow something!  This picture doesn't do justice to how bright it was!

Our fallen tree, from last autumn's storm, has some fresh growth!!!

I spotted a family of geese swimming upriver along the shore on one of my walks home from taking Grace and Juliet.

When I was walking with the big kids to the bus stop, we saw this cool flower that looked like it had tiny hedgehog shaped bugs on it.  

Turns out they were just the pod pieces of the flower!

An hour later, when I was walking with Grace and Juliet, the pods were completely off!  It's crazy how fast the transition took place.

I saw some bigger, stronger geese a few weeks later, practicing their food gathering skills.

Grace and Juliet found a bug somewhere and wanted a picture.

We've been enjoying our warm, leisurely walks in the morning.  The afternoon has become far less consistent, depending on weather, whether or not I'm working, and other chores that need to happen after school.

I'm sure I'll post more pictures as we progress from spring into summer!

later days