shadowDancing

Late afternoon sun, window blinds, graceful birch tree = shadowDancing on the dining room window

there's brick and then there is Psycho-brick

Just monkeyin' with Photoshop

the Galileo Lab

This involves Jason, the science teacher, on the roof of Lincoln Academy, 4th period kids and me on the ground and various things being dropped from the sky. See Galileo's experiments in the 16th century involving the tower of Pisa for precedent.

Thomas Nuttall, 1786-1859

Nuttall's violet is one of the earliest of the prairie wildflowers to bloom in the "wild" part of my yard, and one of my favorites. Named in honor Thomas Nuttall, a British born naturalist and one of America's pioneer paleontologists and plant collectors.

Nuttall was the curator of the Harvard Botanic Garden in the 1820s and at the Philadelphia Academy of Science in the 1830s. He traveled west and collected many of the prairie species first seen by Lewis and Clark whose sample plants were lost during their Voyage of Discovery. Nuttall is honored by not only having the violet named for him, but 4 other plants and 4 bird species as well.

spring migration is On

OK, admittedly these guys landed only one block off South Street, and it was raining and foggy, but they are the rarest spring migrants I've ever seen in western South Dakota. :o)

gloria swanson, is that You?

Sometimes Cinderella needs to have her dress shortened before Prom, and sometimes she gets a little silly when the seamstress is trying to work. And sometimes the seamstress goes and gets a camera...

Cinderella and Prince Charming looked amazing when they headed for the ball. 

 Gloria Swanson by Edward Steichen, 1924

he and She

He waits and watches, while she sits and waits patiently in the rain. She has been incubating the eggs for about 14 or 15 days now, with probably as many more left to go before the goslings hatch. He was extremely suspicious of me, despite the fact that I shot the picture from the car and she was across the small pond. She is very tolerant of the mallards who live on the pond, they will snooze right next to her nest on a sunny afternoon. Probably more pairs of eyes and ears are to everyone's benefit except potential predators.

reflections on a rainy Day

More welcome rain in the Dakotas!

earthbound Clouds

Clouds of blossom against the blue skies of an April day.

Happy Day, Mother Earth

hoping this, turns into THIS

hoping that these baby strawberry plants will soon gift us with these!

here comes the Sun

Here comes the sun. Tulip "Heart's Delight" finds the sunshine her hearts delight, shrugs off the droplets and shows her stuff.

showery Day

Drip, drip, drop
Little April shower
Beating a tune
As you fall all around

Drip, drip, drop
Little April shower
What can compare
To your beautiful sound

Drip, drip, drop
When the sky is cloudy
Your pretty music
Can brighten the day

lyrics from Walt Disney's Bambi

out of Hibernation

Oliver is out of hibernation and back in the garden.

candles and Cones

Ponderosa pine getting ready for spring growth, nothing showy like tulips and daffodils, but renewal of the species is its aim just the same.

on my way to School...

The Fairview Street Tree Spirit...how to make something fun out of an winter storm disaster to your tree. He faces the street as I come around the corner on the way to school in the morning. How can you not smile at that???

tax Day!

Your accountant might be wearing just such a dapper blue and white striped shirt today as he finishes your taxes. Ma Nature dresses puschkinia in similar garb in April. No taxes involved.

This is an heirloom bulb has been in cultivation since 1808, a native to Turkey and the Caucasus Mts. A whole hillside of them must be amazing to see.

poetry for Becka

"Daffodils" (1804)

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

April is National Poetry Month

hens and Chickens

Up close and personal.

dent du Lion

Did you ever look at a dandelion flower up close? Click on the photo and look at the curlicues and the rest of the structure, it's pretty cool.

Dent du lion (lion's tooth) is the original spelling, the description of the serrated lives looking like teeth, not the flower. Dandelions are a important source of pollen and nectar for early spring flying butterflies and honeybees. 

They are also an important source of pollen for allergy sufferers in early spring, unfortunately. On the other hand they have been an important food source for humans for hundreds of years, loaded with vitamins and minerals and fresh greens after a long winter of preserved foods. And now you know.

garden Art

Garden art sometimes shows up in unexpected places, like the base of the birdbath instead of the top. Soon to be accompanied by daffodils  and then heirloom iris.

the prince begins to Wake

Despite the snow shower last night, and ice on the birdbath the last two mornings, my Purple Prince crabapple is beginning to wake from his winter's sleep. Hopefully, he yawns a bit and takes his time, last year all his buds froze just before bloom time and we saw no flowers. No hurry, but it is nice to see he is stirring on a spring day.

on the Trail

I expected to find  meadowlarks on the fence posts along the Sammis Trail, but this post was waving a friendly hello to passers-by instead. Wonder where the right glove is.

belly Flowers

In the Booth family, the tiny ones that you have to get right down on your stomach and enjoy at their level, are always known as "belly flowers". It usually refers to diminutive wildflowers at high elevations, but these Scilla siberica show up scattered here and there in my yard. They catch your eye in amongst the dead leaves and plant debris. Welcome little ones in your Alice Blue gowns.

the Predators

These varmints just ate my iris and my hollyhocks and my grape hyacinths and I don't know what else! Deer aren't supposed to like iris or fuzzy things, they apparently didn't get the memo.

This clan of mule deer numbered 18 when I chased them out  of the yard this morning. The whitetails moseyed through later on there were only 6 of them.  

a Freebie!

If you go to your favorite greenhouse on the day after Easter to buy pansies, they give you a free Easter lily! How cool is that! for BSD and RSR...

one happy Blue Devils fan

Master E. B. Davis...Duke fan since birth. His daddy is crazy  excited, too!

after a nap, a snack was in Order

The Easter Bunny himself pays a call on Sunday afternoon, after a very busy night.

happy Easter!

 

Happy Easter everyone !

Hope the Bunny found your baskets and left them full of goodies.

sticky Snow

spring Break???

Our Spring/Easter Break started today. Does this look like Spring to anybody?? The kids are bummed because this would have been a snow day, the ski areas closed last week, cars are in the ditch (which is why the "kid car" is parked in the driveway) and the power keeps going out and interrupting the Internet. It was 75 on Wednesday and picnic weather.

dragon Wing

The dragon-wing begonia that has lived in the science room all winter is really loving the spring sunshine coming in the west window these days. He lives with a pitcher plant and a sundew happily absorbing 9th grade physical science curriculum.