Spring in the backyard

I love this time of year. It's not too hot yet, the Earth is warming up again after a long, cold winter at least in my neck of the woods. Rebirth is everywhere from trees leafing out, flowers and plants blossoming and new birds to wake you at 5:00 am. We have a big fern garden in the backyard that slowly unferls each spring.

This arbor and trumpet vine is home to 2 robin nests. When I sit outside the female robins get very nervous. They squawk at me, telling me to stay away from their nests. I understand that they are just another kind of mother protecting their babies, if only they knew I won't hurt them, I just want to enjoy the sunshine. Now my dog Cody, that's another story. He goes out and barks at them, they in turn dive bomb him. All in all its quite entertaining.

These are Jack in the Pulpit wild flowers. You don't see them too often in gardens. I had a wonderful elderly neighbor that got them from a friend who found them growing on her property.

I love these coral bells, they are one of the first plants that flower in my garden. Unfortunatly the rabbit that lives in the fern garden likes them also and now the stems are gone. Notice my happy rock in the background. I have a thing for rocks, I'll tell you about it sometime.

Spring and lawn mowing. I tell my sons that its better than shoveling snow. I don't know if they agree. Why does it always happen when you think you can get ahead for a change, you have no big expenses coming up and something breaks. So goes the story with our lawnmower. It just siezed up, wont start and has ended its life. Damn thing. So, we had to go and buy a new one. Actually not me, it is one of those items that I hated to spend money on but you have to have. Like new tires or a new washing machine. Sean researched it and decided on a Toro so below is number one son taking it on it maiden run. (When I say number one son, I don't mean I like him better than the other, he is the firstborn. He will be 20 years old at the end of the summer, number two son is newly 16. You know mothers aren't supposed to have favorites!)