 |
| Apricot Blossoms |
Well, we've completed the time of Blustery Winds and Awakening.
Our weather has been the "on again, off again" sort common to spring.
Daffodils bloomed...
... and the apricot trees were loaded with blooms and bees.
Then on April 21st we got snow again. Hopefully the last of the season. That was followed by several days of rain. Now it's a bit cooler than normal.
 |
| Last snow? |
 |
| Planting peas |
The garden work has begun. I've planted peas and shallots...
 |
| Laying out starts before planting |
... and today I set out 85 plants that I started in the cellar. These are the things that do best early in the season: lettuce, chard, kale, Asian greens, cabbage, spinach, parsley and celery. Tomorrow I'll plant my potatoes: Kennebec, Adirondack Blue and French Fingerling.
Everything else will wait until the end of May.
 |
| Tree blocking the path |
The path between our woods and our meadow has been blocked by a storm downed White Pine tree since last winter.
 |
| Bob and his new ramps |
Today Bob finally got over there with his tractor and chainsaw to clear it away. He cut two slabs to use as ramps. These he will use to enable him to drive his tractor across the creek. He uses his tractor to keep the meadow trails open.
 |
| Path opened up again |
Now there's clear passage into the meadow again.
 |
| Bloodroot |
We mentioned in the last update that we plan on spending more time actively observing nature. We've spent time walking on our own property and seen bloodroots, coltsfoot, Daphne and cowslips blooming.
 |
| Cowslips or Marsh Marigolds |
We even discovered a honey bee's nest in one of the pine trees just behind our garden!
 |
| The specks in the air are bees |
These may very well be bees descended from some of our bees that swarmed from our hives.
We enjoy the quiet beauty of our woods and meadow.
One of our new habits is to carry our binoculars when we go work outside. This really paid off on a sunny Sunday a week ago. While we were working in the garden, a bunch of crows started a ruckus. This usually means that they are pestering a hawk or an owl.
We grabbed our binoculars to investigate and found they were mobbing a Bald Eagle! As I watched, they flushed him out of the woods, right past me, below the level of the tree tops! We saw Eagles aplenty in Minnesota, but I believe this is the first one we've seen since returning to New York. Certainly it's the first we've seen on our property.
We're looking forward to whatever else we may encounter this year.
One nice day this month, we had some extra time between appointments in Ithaca, so we decided to spend it at Stewart Park on Cayuga Lake.
 |
| Osprey with fish |
While there, we watched a pair of Ospreys at their nest. Here's one of them carrying a fish off. He enjoyed his fish snack in a nearby tree.
I'll close for now. There's much to do and I want to get this update out to you folks. We hope you're busy getting ready for a new season of growth and discovery.
Till next time,
Kathleen and Bob
 |
| Vinca in our woods |
