Spring with a vengeance

I managed to pick up one of those nifty Canon macro lenses this winter. It’s one that Igor Siwanowicz uses. Now I know I will never be able to take photos as nice as his but a girl can have goals, right? Now that the critters are crawling I’m out at some point during the day to practice with it. As with all new lenses, there’s a bit of a learning curve. I LOVE the sharpness, but still haven’t got the hang of the DOF. Practice, practice, practice!

Spring Chicken

Spring came early out here on the prairie, just as I knew it would. But to what degree has surprised even me. As I write, the lilacs are blooming. They usually show themselves in May, so we are a bit ahead of schedule. My daffodils, all couple hundred of them, bloomed at once for a very shot time. Tupils are doing their thing now and violets, another May bloomer here, are nearly done. Bring on the morels, please!

The chickens are happy with all the green and bugs. Alexander and I walk around taking photos of them. Here he is trying to get a good shot. Notice the intense look on his face.

We had action in the pond earlier, too. We saw what looked like three types of toads hanging out, chirping and croaking up a storm, and eventually mating. I think they were all American Toads though. They come in such a variety of colors, it’s hard to tell.

 Later that day, momma was laying her eggs. We have a hole in the liner of the pond (and I haven’t figured out how to patch it yet so the water is a bit low. As a result, we didn’t get as many eggs. We only had a dozen strands of eggs.)

Due to the warm weather, the eggs hatched in just under a week. We have hundreds, maybe a thousand little tadpoles. They just lay there and eat algae right now. Pretty soon we won’t have any more algae on the bottom of the pond but by then they will be more active and swimming around.

About a mile away from us a farmer keeps bees. He has four or five hives and we are visited on a regular basis. I found the pussy willows crawling with them the other day. They didn’t seem to mind me one bit. Busy bees, indeed.

I’m having rooster issues. They aren’t being mean to me or the kids, but they are picking on my girl, Princess Beyonce. She doesn’t like them and prefers the company of humans and the other Araucana chickens. I don’t think they take rejection well. I’m ready to send them all packing. I don’t suffer a mean chicken for very long.

The first of the asparagus came up yesterday. I ate this little stalk as soon as I snapped a picture. I’ve been stockpiling asparagus recipes over the winter in anticipation. I’m hoping to have a big bundle harvested for Easter.

The boys spend hours outside. There’s so much to do and explore that they were out until sunset last night. I didn’t even have to throw them out as I sometimes have to do. Granted, they spend their time looking for sticks to poke each other with or poking each other with sticks but hey, as long as there’s no blood or broken bones, I’m fine with it. We were laying in the grass and talking here. Alexander was telling me how he imagines this tiny little world in the grass, where flowers are giant trees and little creatures build houses and live happy lives. He’s not too far off.

One Comment

Wow, Sheila, I’m impressed with your photos. They’re wonderful! We harvested some asparagus the other day. Can’t wait for more!

Cindy

3/29/2012