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!