Back Yard Happenings

Spring has been really slow arriving in our area this year. In looking back at some older photos, I find images of our yard with the trees and shrubs in full bloom in mid-April. Here we are, two to three weeks later this year, and the buds are just making an appearance. Our neighbor's magnolia tree finally blossomed about a week ago. The redbud are just hitting their stride here.

So I can't share any glorious photos of flowering trees and shrubs yet, but here are a few recent images from our yard.

This gray squirrel is enjoying some pistachios that had been in our cupboard too long. (That's a pistachio shell under his tail, just in case you were wondering.)

Our Pussy Willow tree has gotten so tall that it's hard to get a shot of its furry "blossoms." It's an early bloomer, so this picture looks skimpier than it would have a few weeks ago. But the weather's been so nasty that I couldn't have gotten a decent photo at all a few weeks ago.

This is a cluster of buds on our crab apple tree. In a normal year, this tree would have blossomed in all its glory and be dropping its blooms by now. But at least it shows promise of blooming one day soon.

I suspect that everyone recognizes the hardy and cheerful little dandelion. This pesky flower doesn't really seem to be impeded by weather or even by the lawn treatment we paid good money for.

This is a lingering bloom on a forsythia bush.

About six weeks ago, our young neighbor approached us and asked if he could prune and spray our apple tree, which we have neglected for years, in return for letting him have the apples. (He did promise us some homemade applesauce, though.) We gave him free rein with the tree, and he pruned it to beat the band. We weren't sure at first whether it would even survive. But leaves eventually popped out. And, just today, I found these buds on it. Bring on the applesauce!

Update: Doug says I got it wrong. He says the neighbor was planning to make apple CIDER, not appleSAUCE.