Signs of Life

Spring, in all its fickle glory, has arrived in northern Illinois.  The earth is slowly coming back to life after our long, snowy winter.  Spring flowers are beginning to bloom, trees are budding, and the grass is greening up.  Despite the general greening, there are still dead leaves hanging around from last fall, which drive me crazy.  You'll see some in the picture below.  We rake multiple times in the fall, and I have been raking and hand gathering leaves for two weeks, and they just keep appearing.  Maybe once we mow the grass, the remaining leaves will be gone.

I love spring.  It's such a joy to be back in the garden.  One of my favorite things in our spring yard is the carpet of blue flowers under the hackberry tree.  They are quite common in our neighborhood, and I believe they are Siberian squill.  Whatever they are, I adore them.

Here is a close-up view of the squill.

I always have big dreams for the garden in the spring.  This year, it's adding birdhouses (One is already built and put up!  I'd show you a photo, but we knocked off a design we saw on the internet, and it turns out, it is a copyrighted design.  Oops.), and putting in mulch paths in some very shady areas where grass just will not grow.  We'll see how much I actually get done.  In the meantime, I hope the weather is nice wherever you are.

    

Early Spring at the Prairie

Yesterday was a cool and blustery day, but sunny, so it was a good day for a walk in the prairie preserve.  Early spring is a quiet time at the prairie.  Nothing is blooming except some crabapples and lots of dandelions in the mowed "park" section.  The tall prairie grasses are short, just beginning to grow, so there are wonderful open vistas.

Wind farm southwest of the prairie

No goslings yet

On a different subject, a friend dropped off this gorgeous potted hyacinth the other evening.  How glorious!  Our whole house smells heavenly!

The chocolate mini eggs are in a much smaller dish now.
And, why, yes, that lid is slightly askew.  How could that have happened?