Circle of life

 Do you remember the Ents from the Lord of the Rings stories?

This was our Ent. The photo is from a few winters ago.

I always felt he was the gaurdian for the back part of our property.

Late last summer, a large part of his leaves changed early and did not drop.

He went to sleep for the winter, and did not wake up this spring.

Most of these pieces will go to firewood.

They will keep us warm in winters to come. 

There is already new growth in the area. Do you see the pretty lady bug?

Fresh berries will be here soon.

Change is life.

Cheers,

Kat



The rest of my early moring walk.

I will pick up at the pond from my last post, (cue the sound of geese).

I can see home in the distance so turning my back on the pond, I head for it. In a few weeks you will barely be able to see it from the main road (that is fine with us).
This picture is a close up of our big elm. It gets these lacy little buds before the leaves come in. How pretty is that? I think spring is saying, hang on, I'm coming.
There are what sounds like a couple hundred other birds flirting in the trees as I walk past. I could not even begin to guess how many kinds. They are apparently all camera shy this morning and will not let me get close enough to photograph. It reminds me of the mountain ladies from Morocco, I have several photos of their backs as they whirled away to keep me from taking their picture. These silly birds won't even let me take pictures of their backs.

Excuse me for just a minute, I need to put a lady bug outside.

O.K. where was I, oh yeah, by lunch time, the sky on one side was as blue as could be, on the other side, it looked like trouble coming. My Sweet Hubby and I decided to head out for our walk a little early. This picture was taken shortly after we left the house. I love the details in the clouds, see how they look like they are mirroring the shape of the frame?

More clouds, so many shades of blue. This looks like a meadow, it is a field of baby pine trees. This particular batch is a couple of years old and a few are nearly three feet high. I love watching the cycle of all of this, not just in seasons, but in years and hopefully, decades.

The clouds started to look a bit more threatening so at this point, I put away my camera and we headed back to the house.

Excuse me, I need to go put another lady bug outside.

Nope, that is not snow. My camera actually managed to catch the raindrops. They were coming down so hard! My Sweet Hubby and I timed it just right, we felt a drop or two as we got to the yard, but that was it. We have had so much rain lately, our yard is saturated.

OK, here is another one, I wonder what these guys got into that causes the white specks? Oh well, out he goes.

It is hard to justify complaining about the rain when it results in things like this. The tiny flowers in the center are on the biggest of my rosemary plants. This is the first time it has bloomed!

Camellias from the side porch, after the storm.

Remember the old rhyme:

March winds and Aprils Showers,

Bring forth Mays Flowers.

We are a little ahead of the game here. The best part is that even with all these signs of spring, it is still cool enough for a nice long snuggle in the morning.

What? Another Lady Bug?

Oh my, out he goes.

Cheers,

Kat

Seasons

I was taking pictures of Volkswagens yesterday and I almost stepped on these. A sure sign of spring. They are a lovely little surprise. Perhaps I should plant a few in my yard for next year.
Another sign of spring, the ladybugs are waking up. Did you know that they like to hibernate in big old southern houses? We see one or two at a time throughout the winter but in the spring, they wake up and need to be escorted gently back outside.

We planted this Daphne a few years back. It is a very slow grower. This is the first time we have had more than one or two blossoms on it. It lost most of it's leaves in the ice storm a few weeks ago but it is blooming anyway and if you look closely you can see that the leaves are starting to grow back. When ever we have owned a house that is important to us, we have planted one next to the front door so that visitors will be greeted by the lovely fragrance.

With all these signs of spring, I wanted to take just a minute to appreciate the last of winter a little more before it is gone. I will miss natures lace, the dark, bare tree limbs against the sky are so graceful.

See the van, it shows the scale of these wonderful trees. You can really see their graceful forms. They will be beautiful when they are covered in leaves, but it is a different kind of beauty. This seems so very peaceful.

Walking to the mailbox. Our mailbox is out on the main road. I love the walk no matter what the season. Right now you can hear several different kinds of birds singing and off in the distance, on the left hand side of the path, that little black spot is a feral kitty. We think she may have babies near by. She is all black and very shy. This is a good place for ferals to live.

On the wing, we see these guys a lot. It is rare that one flys close enough for me to capture it digitally. I wonder if it is easier for them to hunt when the leaves are not out yet?

These tiny guys like to hide when I pull the camera out. I love to listen to them sing. I took this on the way home from our walk the other day. Notice the pink sky? I am surrounded by beauty!

The sun is setting and it casts a pink reflection on the front of the house. I just can't help wanting to take more pictures. Winter is chilly, and I miss the green, but it has it's own charm. I will enjoy spring, it is one of my favorite times of the year, but I will miss winter. Thank goodness snuggle season isn't over yet.

I leave you for now with that sunset I was just telling you about. If you stand on my front porch and look off to the left, this is what you will see. Hope you like the view.

Kat