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.

the Apogee

The maiden trip of the sprinkler out of the shed for the season, the iris needed a drink. Weird sort of stop action gig.

yipes, Stripes!

(borrowed from www.nationalgeographic.com)

zebra stripes!

 zebra stripes?

lemon yellow, plum purple and orange Orange

 bull's eye for a bee

whiskered One

Next to daffodils, pansies are my favorite spring flowers, this one had a honey sweet smell. I am sure that the deer would find it in a nanosecond and make breakfast out of it. But....if I put it in a hanging pot.....

into the Wind

I know my coastal Florida blog-friends and dwellers of the southern reaches see gulls and terns in their winter dress, but they are spring migrants for us. This crowd of ring-billed gulls was just settling down on my favorite prairie pond for a wash and a brush up. They are the first I've seen since the ice went out, and seemed to have picked up a California gull along the way somewhere.

hot Pink

This hot pink cineraria just screams LOOK AT ME!

You could see it clear across all the baby tomatoes and geraniums in the greenhouse. 

she of the cornsilk Hair

Loved the "California Surfer" blonde mane on this equine girl. She's never seen any ocean but an ocean of grass on the prairie, but she and her companions seemed content in the sun.

flashback: FANTASIA

Go back and watch Disney's "Fantasia", the segment where the animators drew to the music of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. The koi are newly back in their outdoor pond at Jolly Lane,  their languid movements are perfect for the Arabian Dance that Disney chose for them.

there was a reason That...

...the house wren didn't choose the birdhouse by the chimney! This paper wasp's nest (about the size of a ping pong ball) was decorating the living room ceiling of the birdhouse. I found it when I did the spring cleaning of the places for rent about a month ago.

it's not all Uphill

The thing that caught my little donkey friend's attention was this intrepid bike rider traveling along the gravel road. We waved to each other, (the bicyclist and I) he headed east and I went west.

hey! you're no Meadowlark!

First day of Spring, I went on a short birding jaunt out to the prairie grasslands east of town, looking for the first of the year western meadowlarks. I did find one, but I also found this little guy as well. He was with his miniature horse buddies hanging out in a road side pasture. What a charmer!

...the vernal Equnox 3.20.10

 

"....When daisies pied and violets blue

   And lady-smocks all silver-white

And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue

   Do paint the meadows with delight..."

 

Spring 

from Love's Labors Lost  

Wm. Shakespeare

 

happy Birthday!!!

H

Happy Birthday, RAS! Have a super day, kiddo!

blue on Blue

Finally, there he was! Can you see him? A piece of a the sky come to Earth in the top of the cottonwood tree by the side yard! They have been in the neighborhood for a week, but this guy was checking out my birdhouses and had been in my birdbath. Woohoo!

wearin' of the Green

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May your pockets be heavy and your heart be light.
May good luck pursue you each morning and night.
Irish blessing 

LeeRae's Mosaic

1

 ice covered puddle + Converse sneaker + fun-loving teenager = cool mosaic

gnomes, go Home!

Hokey garden art like gnomes and pink flamingoes make my husband crazy. So, of course, I tuck one in somewhere (in a very obvious place) in the yard every spring to get a reaction out of him. He knows full well what I am doing and resists the urge to say anything at all to make me crazy, pretends that he doesn't notice it. Total exercise in futility on my part, but some day...I WILL WIN. 

This branch stub on one of our big pine trees was just begging for some embellishment, so I obliged the "tree spirit" with a Sharpie I had in my shirt pocket. It does not face the house, so I am waiting for him to discover it and NOT comment. We shall see if I get the satisfaction of a reaction, or if I have to go find something more obnoxious yet, the possibilities are limitless.

daylight savings time, spring Ahead !

T

The daylily sundial says it is 10:05 AM today, even if your body is still saying, "noooo, it's only 9:05, let me sleep!"

;o)

tulip "Heart's Delight"

Here's a Delight for the soul, March 13, my Heart's Delight tulips have poked through the ground and are basking in the sun. I took the picture and immediately put fencing around them. You can best believe that if I found them, so will my local deer neighbors.

This is what they will look like sometime in April. I borrowed the picture from Van Bloem Gardens catalog, I'll have my own soon enough. Heart's Delight opens like a waterlily flower in full sun and has funky maroon and green leaves.

Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Last Friday the teachers all had in-service, we paraprofessionals didn't, so I went off looking for ducks to take pictures of at Canyon Lake (Rapid City, SD). Forgot the ducks immediately as one of this pair flew over my car, also headed for the lake. I resisted the urge to run the red light in front of me and follow it. I know this snag was a favorite perch last winter, so I went looking and there they were! OMG! There was a guy driving a local Internet/Cable/Phone company truck who followed me in to the parking lot, also armed with camera and a longer lens than my small telephoto. We had a great time just admiring and taking what pictures we could, because, once again, we were in the fog. I wasn't playing hooky, but he was. I promised not to rat him out. :o)

I was very flattered when our webmaster asked to use the photo as part of the header for our Rapid City Academies website, we are the EAGLES! How cool is that for a chance encounter? Not ready for prime time (National Geographic), but what a nice compliment, thank you.

not quite Jurassic Park

Dinosaur Park is straight uphill from the school where I work. A popular spot with locals and tourists alike, it occupies a long hogback ridge in the middle of Rapid City.

The pipe frame and concrete dinosaurs are WPA project #960, built in 1936, and the apatosaurus (brontosaurus) is visible from nearly anywhere in town. He is the model for the kid-created mural on the retaining wall that stands behind the west doors of our building. He caught my eye the other day in his bright shamrock green glory. www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10514

Diagon Alley?

for RAS, RSR and BSD, with apologies to JKR and HJP

; o)

Danny Meadow Mouse

Thornton Burgess's Danny Meadow Mouse, illustration by Harrison Cady. Favorite children's books of the Booth family for several generations. I believe that Danny and his family have been wintering in my side yard. As the drift by the old yellow rosebush has finally started to disappear, this is what I found emerging out of the snow. The doorway is on the lower right, and the occupants seem to have left for parts unknown.

welcome to the World!

 

 Happy Birthday, Becka and Andy, and all the little'uns born in the spring!

early morning Feline

 

Lucifer contemplates... 

nowhere near Boston or San Diego, it's Foggy!

 

  

3/6/10  4:00pm

From the deck to the east and the front porch to the west, the world disappears into the fog! Where in the world does Ma Nature dig up this crazy weather? 

How am I supposed to find the bluebirds out there in this stuff, I'd like to know. 

raspberry Parfait

Dianthus "Raspberry Parfait"

Dessert, anyone?

still life with blue skies and Magpie

Feathers for a Friday

:o)

There is a family of black-billed magpies that lives on the Moon Meadows Road that I drive on my way to school every morning. They usually travel together, I saw four of them the other day dashing from tree to tree. They look like something out of an Elizabethan minstrel show in their harlequin costumes.

a sentimental Favorite

The first flowers my husband ever brought me were daffodils liberated from his grandmother's garden 40 years  ago...they are my favorite spring flowers. I have planted dozens in our yard over the last 30 years. The best part about daffodils is that deer don't like them at all, they taste nasty!

in a mere 90 Days....

 

This is what June should look like, only 90 days from now! 

precipitation in the form of a Liquid

Do you remember what rain looks like on the green leaves of old fashioned daylilies?

mid-latitudes need some Springtime!

 

Our whole family lives north of the 36th parallel, everybody have seen snow measured in feet, drifts shoulder high, cold temperatures and cabin fever for weeks. They all must feel like the next Ice Age is blossoming in their neighborhoods! For the dwellers of the snowy regions of North Carolina, Wyoming, Minnesota, South Dakota and the Champlain Valley, here is a week of SPRINGTIME for you!

feel like you are in a Fog?

Not moonlight, but sunlight! It has been pea soup foggy since last night, not much artsy fogfrost, but an unusual view of the 4 o'clock sun, with Black Hills spruce, Burr oak and Ponderosa pine for company. Last day of February, 2010

portrait of a Lady

 

sky or not Sky?

At first glance on the screen it was almost an optical illusion. Is it late afternoon shadows on wind sculpted snow, or is it blue skies with white wind driven clouds?

shadow Dance

I was looking for the Siberian squill that are sleeping in this part of my wild garden, of course it is way too early, I know, I know. One can hope. The pine cone dancing with its shadow beside the rotting birch log caught my eye, I love the low angle sun in late afternoon.

for my Moonchild

friendly moon

with silver gaze

watches over my sleeping child

the C.E.O.

 

Captain Jack Sparrow, chief executive officer of Schnauzer Snowplow, Inc. There is all kinds of interesting stuff under freshly fallen snow, even for a couch potato. 

houskeeping Week

The week of my birthday (mid-February) I make a habit of cleaning and repairing my birdhouses in anticipation of the spring arrivals. Although I won't see the house wrens or violet-green swallows till late April, the intrepid mountain bluebirds will arrive back soon! The earliest return date for our neighborhood is March 4, a good landlord needs to be ready for prospective tenants.

does your hair have a Cowlick?

Here is the genuine article! I watched her create this lovely chili pepper 'do on her winter furry hide. No gel or other styling products needed. :o)