Out and About

The unseasonably warm weather has brought out a Northern Water Snake, 
warming himself at the feet of the crane . . .
.
 The clematis are blooming . . .
 
Last year's collards are bolting -- pretty yellow flowers signalling the end. 
Time to pull them up and give them to the chickens, making room for new plants. 

The asparagus are shooting up -- needing to be picked almost every day.

I'm encouraging them with a nice thick mulch of shaving and horse manure -- courtesy of Ruby, our tenants' horse, and of John, who brought it up to the garden

Willa and Ali enjoy digging holes. 

Miss Susie Hutchins watches in smug superiority.

William relaxes.

That isn't a weed, there on the edge of the asparagus bed.

It's Blue-Eyed Grass -- a tiny wild iris. The bloom is about the size of my little finger nail.

The thrift, aka creeping phlox, is beginning to fade.

Lilies of the valley -- one of my very favorite fragrances-- are blooming.

In the same shady woodland garden, a Wake Robin peeks out.

I think these are Spanish Squills -- but they could be English wood hyacinths...

This below is a native yellow trillium.

I cleared out the old collards and kale and broccoli, John tilled up the box beds,
 and I got some seeds in -- hoping for rain soon

This rhododendron starts out with coral buds, opens pale pink, 
and eventually becomes a pretty pinkish-yellow.

Another wild iris -- Crested Dwarf Iris grow at the edge of the woods.