First signs

Surprise! Yayyy! I keep finding daffodils and alliums that I planted last year. They are popping up here and there in surprising places. How fun! I was trying to get a picture of a bunch of them in a path down towards the lake but Cosmo the Magnificent felt he needed to be in the picture. Giant Cosmo. Anyway... then I shooed him off and got the next picture and added handy dandy arrows so you can see where the flowers are coming up. :)

*Remember you can click on any of these pictures and a bigger one will open for you... just hit back to return to the blog. *

Only the leaves of the aliums are up, the daffodils have come first as they seem to be the first sign of spring around here... until I plant some crocuses anyway. Heh heh. Well, that is the first sign of spring and also the first signs of the house are coming up (foundation blocks) and the bones of my veggie garden. These chimney flues were part of a deconstruction site... I snagged them for the southeast corner of my garden for trailing plants. Remember this is a temporary garden so while the orange plastic is so VERY attractive in the landscape it is not a permanent fixture.
It seems so very obtrusive and as you may be able to see I am near the lake but when you look from the house where the patio is going to be... it is not really in the way at all. While I was "planting" the chimney flues (however you spell it) my little friends were busy at my feet. As you can see Delta has grown enough to have a bit of an unfair advantage over Cosmo the Magnificent when they are playing. Yes.. that is her mouth covering his entire head. When they run and play he 'knocks' her over and she rolls all dramatically and flails around. However, when he is done playing he gives her the evil eye or something and she is afraid to even walk near him. Ya know... my Dad said something to me about German Shepherds being quiet, and some hunters like their hunting dogs mixed with German Shepherds for that very reason depending on what they are hunting. That is turning out to be very true about her. When someone comes to Jerry's house Cosmo, Beau, and Chuck all get to barking and run towards the door from wherever they are in the house... however she is silent. I can be sitting at the computer downstairs and the only reason I know she got up and out of her bed to go see who is at the door is that I hear her feet padding on the carpet. She runs along with her head down low, ears up and alert, and slips upstairs to see whats going on. Good girl.

I had been getting water and loon poo from the lake to put in my garden soil and I noticed right under the water a layer of leaves, waiting to decay. It was so pretty and clear I took some pictures.

I did not notice at first that someone was watching me. Can you see him there?

Another sign of spring! Geez its about time, its only friggen Memorial Day... well almost. Oh and for the last pic of the day.. along with the Maples everywhere there are a lot of Birch trees and Pople trees. Pople look a hell of a lot like birch trees to me except the bark is not as papery. Anyway... it turns out when a birch dies it rots from the inside out! If you are going to use a birch for firewood you have to split it before you store it or it simply decays and leaves the 'paper'. You can be walking through the woods and see what you think is a nice piece of birch laying on the ground and go to pick it up and ... all you get is the bark paper. I have been told that Pople does not do that.

Anyway, here is a birch that rotted from the inside after it died... hmm.. interesting.