Earth Day

And what a better way to spend it than digging in the dirt. Now begins the season when my feet and fingernails are not often clean. I cannot pull weeds or plant things with gloves on and I despise walking in the garden with shoes on so that the dirt clumps up in the shoes...soooo no shoes no gloves and dirty dirty fingernails and feet!
I was however feeling a tad overwhelmed with all that needs to be done. There are gardens (oh there are lots of them) to till, veggies to plant, flower beds to clean up from last year's growth etc etc etc and I am thinking, 'Oh dear friend Mary how come you didn't tell me that there is so much work in the spring' . although I think you may have and I didn't believe you until I started to dig in. Then I realized it does not all need to be done in one day...phew! I did get onions, radishes, beets, lettuce and spinach in as well as a garden tilled and then that was enough of that. Cleaning last year's dead stuff out was all worth it when I was able to see new green growth coming up underneath it all. That inspired me to get the camera out, set the macros and take some close up shots.

This is the tree that was planted in memory of my mom. I find it interesting that red was her favorite color and look at the first color that this tree comes out with!
Jess, this is the PixiE magnolia, it's going to make it up here in the northland!
Another one of our newly planted trees is budding nicely.
And this is some of what I found after I cleaned out the old growth from the flower beds
Sedum coming through
Mary what is this? You gave it to me last year-Lambs Ear maybe?
You gave me this as well...what is it my friend Mary? And no I no longer have the markers by these plants. What happens to them do you think?
David spent the past three days working on the fire pit area. We...well he as I, thankfully, had the flu when he started this project and wasn't able to help him...I'm feeling bad about that...not. Anyway, he laid pavers and then sawed them (with a hand grinder!) to make the rounded edge. In the center will be the fire pit. Nice nice nice.

I had to end with this. One day last week on a walk by a local lake we found that the ice was out about three feet from the shore. Just enough for Tack to get a good swim in!

Minnesota Finally Has A Second US Senator

Or do we? Al Frankin has been deemed the winner but Norm may file yet another lawsuit. And so the story goes with Minnesota making national headlines.
On to topics that make more sense.
The snow is slowly melting here in the north land and the mud is dryng up. We can finally make it up our driveway fairly easily and yesterday I planted tomatoes, some herbs and a few flowers. Well I planted starter seeds in doors but hey I did dig in the dirt and it felt good.
Last weekend we stayed at the Leonard hotel. A very nice hotel that offers not only a room with a TV, our own private bathroom and a great supper of grilled chicken kabobs and grilled shrimp on skewers. But the creme de le creme is spending time with one of our three granddaughters. Oh how they change. Julia continues to teeth, drooling all over the place, chewing on everything she can get in her mouth, running a low grade temp etc but despite all of this she almost always has a smile on her face. She is sitting up on her own, rolls all over the place, loves to be on her feet in her walker and I swear she says momma. Len and Kel have 5 (yes 5) cats that Julia loves. The cats don't love her so much, in fact all but one run from her. She is eating new foods all of the time and seems to like most...when she isn't 'spitting it out' at her mom or dad. She finds it fun to make sounds with her lips and especially when her mouth is full of food. Oh and did I mention that she loves her grandma?
Julia playing peek-a-booGrandma having fun with the camera
When daddy found out that he was having a girl his fear was that she would be a girly girl and how was he going to handle that.....well well daddy picked this girly girl frilly, cute as can be Easter skirt out for his baby.
Grandparent-hood is the best. We just wish that we could see all of the grandkids more frequently.

April Fools 2009

As my good friend Mary says, "That Mother Nature is quite a trickster" and she proved it today.
After three days of snow..

We woke up to at least 12 inches of snow on the ground

However it was 40 degrees and the snow is beautiful. The dogs and I enjoyed trudging through the woods listening to...absolutely nothing. It was very quiet and peaceful.
Last week when the weather was nicer we took our walks at the Federal Dam Park. The geese were enjoying the warmer weather.

And we spotted this guy along with four of his friends. They had been feasting on a road kill in the ditch. We drove right up to the tree that he was in and he held his position for quite a while. We were so close that it is easy to see the feathers in his wing.
And then he flew away. This is a favorite shot of mine. I love to get them in flight, there is just something majestic about it.
I think that this is a pretty cool shot. If you look closely you can see two eagles in the tree while the third eagle flies by.
We have spotted more eagles this spring in a group than ever before. It has not been unusual to see two to four of them together.

Soon we will be able to plant right Mary?