RIGHT ON TIME

On May first, I heard, but did not see, out first hummingbird of the season.

The next morning there he was- glaring into my kitchen window, and saying "OK lady, I've come a long way from Costa Rica. WHERE'S MY FEEDER!!

I hastened out to the garage fridge to find some sugar water that did not get used last year when everybody decided to migrate. Yea! There was about a cup there, and it was not molded.

I poured that into a small feeder and hung it while I was boiling up a couple of quarts of new feeder syrup.

Soon enough there he was.

He has been joined by others--I hesitate to say "friends" since hummingbirds seem to hate each other passionately. Right now, we have only males of the ruby throat and black chinned varieties. They come first by about 2 weeks to stake out a territory before the ladies arrive-- find a good apartment, and all that. We are expecting females any day now. Rufous hummingbirds arrive in July. They are so beautiful in the sunlight!

Please, Spring - HURRY UP!

Outside, the forsythia and bulbs are blooming, but itis still grey and cold. But INSIDE --well that's a different matter. In the plant room, THINGS ARE JUMPIN'!!

Hello there seedlings. Welcome to the world!

Things are definitely getting ready to go
This little beanling was ready to be repotted as soon as it sprouted. I like enthusiasm in a bean. Momcat and the Fatherhead had to make an emergency run out for peat pots.



EVERYBODY's up and at 'em!

The Wandering Jew has been pent up long enough, and is now trying to climb out the window.

The bean startling is trying to follow it.

Spring needs to start meaning business

RIGHT NOW!!!

Of course, the bulbs aren't bothered by the capricious weather

MOUNT HOOD DAFFODIL

one of our favorites

A Brittany Nest

A few weeks ago, while surveying our yard to see what new brave perennials were venturing up, The Fatherhead and I found a small bird nest which had blown out of a tree in a recent wind. No wonder it was not well anchored. It had no weight to it at all.

Every spring, when we groom the dogs; we put the clipped fur, along with yarn and raffia scraps out in a wire suet feeder for our avian friends to use for nesting materials. This greedy little pair took almost all of the fur for themselves and built a nest ENTIRELY of Brittany Spaniel fur.




















The inside was Tali's fluffy under coat. --UMMMM so soft and cozy!

But the outside could have only come from the ringlets of Cooper's white ruff. --VERY stylish!








What discriminating little birds!

We are sorry you beautiful little home blew away, but don't worry.....

THERE'S LOTS MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!

We Have Tulips This Year!

We have tulips! Yea!

We will also have daylilies and peonies. Double Yea!!

You see, we have deer. Not only do they come visiting in the winter when life gets hard up in the mountains, they also stay for the spring flower season. They do not like daffodils, which is a mercy. But they adore lilies and tulips.



So just what sort of Imp of the Perverse makes us so all-fired determined to have tulips in the face of all this opposition? Probably just the fact that they get them every single year -Year after year after year.



So this year, we went to Home Depot back in March and invested about $75 in fencing and netting to protect our $25 worth of tulips. For some reason this makes us proud and happy. Everyone we talked to said it seemed about right to them.



Of course this made the deer so mad that they ate the tops off the Bachelor's Buttons in desperation, which they nave never done before.



BUT..... WE HAVE TULIPS!! Next fall, we'll plant some more.

Eat your heart (hart) out Bambi!

Mount Hood daffodils

In a frolic outpouring of poeticism, when our youngest Chickadee went off to college in Oregon, I bought some Mount Hood daffodils in commemoration of the milestone. White- like the Mount hood glaciers. I thought it was an inspired idea! The daffodils bulbs, however, were less than pleased. They let me know in no uncertain terms just how little they appreciated their prime location in the front border by doing the absolute least they could get away with and not be dug up or plowed under as dead and gone. They bloomed little and spread none. In short, they sulked.

They continued their little pet for several years until we created the two "Williamsburg Gardens" out at the end of the driveway and moved them -hoping for the best, but expecting not too much. Well gollies, they did a total turn around! Maybe there is Prozac in the soil. Maybe they just had East Coast dreams and Colonial Dame pretensions all along, and we just didn't know.

But then, who knew you needed a psychiatrist for your daffodils. I thought the beauty of bulbs was that you just stuck them in the ground and let them go. Oh well!

Now we have enough Mount Hoods to cut and bring inside to arrange with grape hyacynths and other things . I hope you like them, Chickadee. They are all for you.

LOVE,

MOMCAT

The Regress and Progress of Spring -Once Again

Oh, Fickleness, Thy Name is Vernality!

Just when I was almost sure that spring had made its very last false start--or at least I hoped it had-- It went away again!

Easter was gorgeous and just made for egg hunting . Trees were blooming. Shrubs were blooming. Flowers were blooming. The world was blooming. In fact, it was getting so warm so fast, we were beginning to worry about floods and mudslides from too rapid snow melt in the mountains.

Silly us! Borrowing trouble like that. We should have been considering the lilies of the field ....... while we could still see them. A short week later, and look who came back.... Mr Winter!

It snewed and blewed and then it did it some more. The wind chimes rang loudly all day and all through the night.

But after a few days of showing us who was still in charge, winter finally retreated again, and spring came back. The apricot tree probably got nipped. It is always so improvident as to bloom weeks ahead of everything else, so often we do not have apricots. Each year, though, its optimism refuses to be dampened. The pear tree is now covered with hopeful blossoms, and the wise old apple trees haven't even thought about it yet.

Can we really believe it this time. Has spring really come so far along that there is now no turning back?

Who can tell? We'll just enjoy it while it's here