Showing posts with label Gardens' Keep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gardens' Keep. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Fledglings

~ Baby Sparrows ~
 
~ Newly Hatched Robins ~
( This nest was built on top of our 3 foot high phone box!) 
 
~ Baby Robins ~
 
Nature always seems to balance itself out somehow. If Spring comes early one year,
it seems to come later the next.
Last year Spring came very early to northern Minnesota, one of the earliest on record.
In contrast, this Spring is taking its time, peaking its head out ever so slowly.
 
One day it snows giant sticky snow clumps that cling heavily to branches, weighing them nearly to the ground. The next day the sun shyly peaks out from great gray clouds,
just enough to slowly melt the heavy white covering deposited on roof tops,
vehicles, trees, and anything else that stood out under the early Spring sky.
 
Nothing can be done to speed the coming of Spring,
but oh how I long for its warmth, the smells of the earth coming alive,
the beautiful singing of birds that have returned to raise their young,
and the sight of lakes shimmering, reflecting the beautiful blues of warming skies.
 
Nothing can hurry Spring,
but to remind me of what awaits when it arrives, I look back on images captured last year.
Gardens' Keep flourishes with life, and the cedars I planted years ago
are favorite nesting spots for both Sparrows and Robins.
 
Above are images of baby birds in three of the eleven nests I discovered last year! 
I wonder, how many will I discover this year? 
 
 
 


Saturday, April 6, 2013

Early Spring in Minnesota

~ Early Spring Snowstorm ~
 
This is what I see outside today...5 inches of new snow from an early Spring snowstorm
(and still it's snowing).
The snowflakes are so large,
and on closer view I see what looks to be more than 50 snowflakes clinging to each other.
 
Spring 2013 seems to be coming very slowly to northern Minnesota.
Many are anxious for warmer weather,
as am I.
 
Upon looking back into my diary
 it is surprising to see that Spring 2012 had made its appearance to us
by the middle of March.
On St. Patrick's Day we were spoiled with temperatures in the middle 70's
no snow on the ground, frog croaking, butterflies fluttering past,
 and Spring birds singing. 
The ice on local lakes had all but melted away 10 days later. 
 
Spring 2013 appears to be weeks away from the sightings written above!
 
Thankfully, even though this winter still persists
the Gardens' Keep greenroom has burst into welcoming shades of green.
Potted geraniums, daylilies, and heirloom iris
have joined the resident sage and primrose plants with blooms
in blues, purples, pinks, red, wine, and yellow,
their sweet scents wafting throughout Dragonfly Cottage.
 
~ Gardens' Keep Greenroom ~
 
The plants in the greenroom are such a welcome sight to eyes weary
of barren trees and winter snow,
and provide reassurance that as the days lengthen and the sun strengthens,
Spring truly is on its way!
 
~ Wishing you sunny, warm, whimsical days ahead! ~
:0)