It’s Spring!

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It’s been raining most of the day, and now it’s pouring. We had a lot of thunder earlier, but I think it’s passed for now. When I opened the door to take this photo, the only sound was from the spring peepers. They’re mostly in the little creek, but a couple live in a deep puddle where one of the culverts empties. I became aware of them over a week ago when I hear one jump from the bank into the water and have been trying unsuccessfully to get a photo ever since. To paraphrase the pangram, “The quick brown frog jumps into the muddy puddle.”

It’s been a while since we’ve had a day-long rain, and I don’t really mind (although it will be a slippery and muddy trip down to feed later). At least it’s not snowing, as Facebook reminded me has happened several times before on March 25 since I’ve been here. You can see the changes in the weather and some high water from lots of rain upstream last week.

Spring is definitely on the way. Last week I noticed tiny American Field Pansies (Viola bicolor) on the side of the road (where they had survived last year’s scraping and widening of the road), and yesterday I saw Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) and Cut-leaved Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata) blossoms. The forsythia is blooming by the mailbox, and the woods seem full of Northern Spicebush (Lindera benzoin). The Slippery Elm (Ulmus rubra) is budding out, and the Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) began showing color this week. It seems that Ragwort is everywhere, although I’m not sure if it’s Roundleaf Ragwort (Packera obovata) or Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea). And I love the Common Blue Violets (Viola sororia) all over my yard!

It’s late in the afternoon; I keep checking to see if the deer have arrived and am relieved that they haven’t. We’re still in the midst of a thunderstorm, and it looks as though it may continue for a while. The deer would rather avoid leaving their cover in this weather, too, I think; once in a while they don’t show up in heavy storms. Here are some photos taken in nicer weather. You can see that they are looking skinny and shaggy.

Even Tom hasn’t shown up today! I hear him gobbling most mornings and either he or Tommy and Thomas usually show up at some time during the day. (The trio of winter seems to have broken up.)

Four deer were waiting the last time I looked. Well, they were actually heading back into the woods but returned when I called them. It was a group of four young ones (last year’s fawns) from the group that comes from across the road that I used to call the interlopers. Most of them won’t let me get very close. (Many of them are in the photos above.) Of course, I took them corn and apples and took a few photos. While I was in the meadow, I saw that a small tree had fallen in the road but wasn’t blocking it. You can also see how the ditches are running full. (We’ve gotten about .75″ so far today.)

I recently realized that I was not writing as much as I used to (and some of you have noticed, too!). Maybe this will hold you until I have more time, but now Cisco’s telling me that it’s time to feed the cats.