Shhh...We're Stalking Squirrel

What's that I spy?


Maybe if I'm very quiet...


Hey...what's that?


Dakota now has a favorite pass-time. Try to sneak up on the squirrel. Actually, I think that we have two squirrels. One climbs over the fence here and also up onto the garage. Dakota just wants to be friends....really.


Dakota will literally will spend hours waiting.


Here's the second squirrel. This one comes from the other side of the yard and hides under our shed. Dakota helped me get close to this one. She was fixed on something I could not see, so I sneaked with her to find this guy (or gal).


It's really quite entertaining. I think that everyone is getting used to each other. The squirrels can't stand on the bird feeder, so they come to the fence and crawl on the ground for the seeds the birds knock out. The dog stares at them, they stare at the dog. The dog lays down to wait, they climb down a few feet away and snack.

Speaking of snacks, this is the bird that is helping me with what I think are "woolly aphids" (here's some other photos).


Here's a little closer photo of the helpful bird.

Green Grass and Indoor Pea

We've recovered from our last Spring snow. I guess this was our second snowiest April in weather history. Well, the grass is really greening up now and it won't be long before the first mow.


Our seedlings faired the snow and 20F nights just fine, so they lived up to their cool season reputations.


I have started to notice a lot more birds in our yard this Spring. This sparrow was building a nest (they live in our clothes line tubes). Robins are visiting the yard and drinking at the bird bath. I have been waiting for them to visit since we moved in a couple of years ago. And I spotted a finch of some sort picking at some dried vines- I thought it was nesting or something. It turns out he was eating bugs, let me know what they are if you can.


We planted some violas and pansy in what will be an herb bed.


Some of the tulips have formed buds, maybe they will bloom by the 15th. Other tulips are recovering from having their leaves crushed by snow.


These hyacinths made it through the snow with their flowers intact. There is also growing rudbeckia, daisy, and grape hyacinth.

And then there are the other kids...See all the things emerging from the winter sleep now. A coneflower or aster, purple aster, hosta, something volunteering by a half barrel, and a few treasures in the "south" bed.



My last photo of the day, I got a surprise this week. Pea pods indoors. I tried an experiment in February and planted a couple of sugar snap peas in a container inside. They are now flowering and producing pods! They are not profuse and I'm not sure what the quality will be, but they did grow.