Cotton-candy season

Around here, April is what I call "cotton-candy season" for the simple reason that the wild plum trees explode with blossoms, making the hillsides look like they're covered with bits of cotton candy.

Get the sun involved (either early in the morning or late in the afternoon), and the effect is magical.

Closer up, the trees are no less enchanting.

I took some shots of the blossoms on the plum tree in our driveway.

Then we had one day of brisk wind, and that was the end of that. Without the wind, normally the falling petals coat the roadways. This year, they were mostly whisked away in shimmering showers of white. The petals were too small to photograph during this process (I tried), so all that was left was bits of petals caught in road ruts.

Cotton-candy season doesn't last long, a week or two max (which reminds me of the line "Gather ye rose-buds while ye may" from the poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time").

Because everything is early this year due to our freaky-mild winter, I'm hoping it wasn't too early for the insect pollinators to do their job.

Spring projects

Now that the weather is breaking, Don and I are sort of coming out of our winter hibernation mindset. In the spirit of taking advantage of increasingly good weather, we have a number of projects we're either working on or planning to work on. These include:

• Improving the fencing around the blueberries and peaches. As these plants have flourished, two things became apparent. One, the deer are still able to nibble leaves off the peaches, so we need to secure them in higher fencing.

And two, as the blueberries become more productive, I need a little more space around the back side to reach all the fruit. For this reason, we're going to redesign the enclosure to have upright fencing rather than angled fencing.

• We're going to hold another yard sale. Yeah yeah, I know I said "never again" after the massive sale we had three years ago. But we realize we have a lot of things we honestly don't need or use cluttering up corners of the house and barn, so why keep them around?

• We're going to finish building out the garden. Don is halfway through the process of building the last seven beds we need, after which we'll install them and fill them with soil.

• We're going to install the drip irrigation system we had pre-planned for the garden. We'll also install a drip system for the blueberries and peaches.

• Don is nearly finished building a permanent ladder for one of the lofts in the barn. The space is too narrow for a staircase (since we need to leave room for the tractor to get in and out), and up to this point we'd made do with just a regular extension ladder whenever we needed access to the loft. But about a year ago, while attempting to pull something down from the loft, the ladder I was on slipped out and crashed beneath me. Thankfully the base hit some things behind it so I didn't fall all the way to the floor, but I fell about four feet down, enough to bang up my shoulder and terrify me. This new ladder system can be folded flat against the wall until needed, and it's secure and won't ever slip.

• We're going to convert a shed room into a guest room. The shed below has two sides, and the right-hand side will become the guest room. Right now we literally have no where to put overnight guests. When Younger Daughter visited three years ago, she had to bunk on a foldout bed in Older Daughter's room, which made for cramped quarters. Younger Daughter is coming to visit us in June, so we want to outfit the shed into comfortable quarters for her stay, as well as for any future guests.

This is just a start. Doubtless we'll have more projects spring up as spring turns to summer and summer turns to fall. But for now, this is more than enough work to keep us both busy.

Surest sign of spring

Right now, spring is everywhere. The plum trees are blossoming, the birds are singing, the grass is greening up. We've even had a couple of days with temperatures above 70F! (Those won't last; we're slumping back into the 60s and 50s later in the week.)

But the surest sign of spring?

I can finally hang our flannel sheets outside to dry after washing.

Don and I use flannel sheets for all but the hottest summer months. I drape them over the drying racks indoors in winter, but it's always much nicer to hang them to dry in the fresh air and sunshine.

Yep, it must be spring.

Bud season

Unsurprisingly, after the freaky-warm winter we've had, everything is budding out waaay too early. The plants are weeks ahead of schedule, but they're not listening to me when I tell them this.

Wild roses:

Blackberries:

Peaches:

Blueberries:

Apples:

Plums:

Willows:

And oak:

I just hope a late cold snap won't cause these trees and bushes to regret their decision......

Home again

Ah, nothing like arriving home at three o'clock in the morning.

I flew out from Southern California Friday evening, had one layover, and arrived at a regional airport at midnight. Older Daughter had some errands in the city, so she timed them for Friday, hung with some friends, went to a movie, then just waited at the airport until I arrived. We embarked on the long drive home in the wee hours and arrived at 3 am. None of us got much sleep (Don dozed in a chair but otherwise waited up for us), so yesterday (Saturday) was a zombie day.

But I came home to a landscape transfixed and firmly in early spring. Things are green green green! All the wild plum trees are in full bloom, looking like fluffy balls of cotton on distant hillsides. Sometimes I call this cotton-candy season.

Last year, I noted the complete – and I mean complete – absence of wild plums for whatever reason. If these blossoms are anything to go by, that won't be the case this year.

It's good to be home.

Nest-building mode

A western kingbird landed on our deck a few days ago.

While these birds are common, I've never seen one land on our deck. Soon it became apparent he (or she) was in nest-building mode. Notice the white feather in its beak.

What was comical – and I couldn't quite snatch a photo of it – was how strongly the bird was eyeing the tattered outdoor carpet on the deck.

I half expected to see the bird return and try to fray the edges and harvest some threads, but it hasn't returned since. Presumably it found another source of soft fluffy materials to use in its nest.

Ah, spring.

Signs of spring

Despite being in the middle of a chilly spell (windy, scattered rain, high of 50F), spring is indisputably here. One of the surest signs is the blossoming of the arrow-leaf balsamroot.

These large, showy blooms prefer shallow soil and sunny south-facing slopes. During this time of year, they positively carpet meadows and light up distant hillsides with color.

Another sign is deer. They're everywhere. I mean, deer are always "everywhere" here, but this time of year they're more "everywhere" than usual, if you know what I mean.

No fawns yet, though. It's too early for that.

the oak trees are starting to bud.

But the surest sign of spring? Turkeys.

Yes, the toms are strutting, and you never saw a more puffed-up crowd of self-absorbed grandees than these boys. I mean, they know they're hot stuff.

They always look so affronted when interrupted, glaring at you before closing down their feathers and slinking away.

I caught this fellow displaying below our deck. I was trying to sneak up without him noticing.

He may have noticed me, but he had better things to do. There were ladies present.

The ladies, however, didn't seem overly impressed. (They never do.) They soon wandered off, with our boy trotting in their wake.

Undeterred, he followed them down to the road and commenced displaying again. I admired his persistence.

Despite my poking fun at the toms, and however indifferent the hens may seem, evidently it works. You can bet we'll have lots and lots of baby turkeys trotting around in a few weeks.

Ah, spring.