The most wonderful time of the year!!!

Spring is my absolute favorite season- and I am ecstatically happy to say it has arrived here in Western NY!!! Yesterday evening we had a bit of a thunderstorm that had ended by bedtime. We opened the windows a bit to let in the fresh air and I was able to drift off to sleep to the sound of the peepers singing in the little pond across the street. (let the sound play for a minute and you'll hear the chorus)




Bunny has decided he likes spring, too. He spent his first day digging around looking for green food, which has since appeared in profusion. He seemed to enjoy a crunchy leaf, though.






I spent most of last weekend out in the gardens around my house. I have beds all around the house, out by the utility pole, at the fences bordering the front yard, and a huge perennial bed. It's way more than i can actually do myself. I am not actually a gardener, to be honest. I'm a "plunker". I plunk things in the ground and hope they live. If they don't, I try something else next time. My basic gardening philosophy is to plant invasive perennials and self seeding annuals and let them battle it out. My favorite gardens are the ones that meander along, with seemingly random assortments of flowers looking slightly overgrown, like they haven't been tended in a while. Sadly, mine truly looks untended most of the time. But it gives me an opportunity to be outside on glorious spring days.
While pulling weeds and cutting down last year's stalks, I can listen to the birds singing and watch them building their nests in the boxes we have out around the yard. The bluebirds are holding their own against the swallows this year, I am happy to say. I tried to get a good picture of the male guarding the house as the female took nesting materials inside, but he stayed hidden behind a tree branch. The swallows are aggressive little birds. When ever I am working near the house they have moved into, the dive bomb my head, chittering loudly as they pass. It takes some getting used to not to duck and cover every time. But they are not really trying to hit me. They do manage to chase the cat off every time, though!
The goldfinches are turning yellow. Up until a few years ago, I thought how odd it was that they seem to change overnight. Since I put this feeder so close to the house, I have been able to observe the transformation. The poor things actually look kind of diseased while they are in transition.






I also spent a bit of time in our newly renovated screen porch. It had been studs and bare wood until last fall, when I said maybe next year, we should put in a ceiling fan. Next thing I knew, all my "toys" were packed away and the drywall was up! (I had resisted this, since the little cubbies in the studs seemed so perfectly rustic and suited to a room I used mostly as a potting shed.) Hubby was good to me, and built me a shelf all around the top of the room for all my pots and decorations, so I got them all back out and arranged on the shelf. It feels like it's "mine" now. No room in my house is complete without lotsa of things to look at. I wondered about that for a while, since I abhor clutter. But my Grandmother's house- where I spent a lot of my childhood- had knick-knacks everywhere, too.




And last on this lengthy post, is the quilt I layered the other day. I hope to get the machine quilting done this weekend, but haven't really decided how to quilt it. I was thinking of something viney with flowers in the white spaces, but my friend MaryLee says feathers. Suggestions????














I am grateful for:
The beautiful sunrise this morning
Daffodils and forsythia brightening up the yard
Polite truck drivers, who yield to those of us who can get up a hill in less than a week
Laughing with my son
Almond Croissants from Wegmans