Easter Saturday

A couple of dozen shots taken Easter Saturday morning while wandering around the back with the dogs. Once you’ve clicked the first one, you can click the center margins or use left or right arrows to advance . . .

Cherokee Princess

Cherokee Princess, a flowering dogwood cultivar.

Said to be the industry standard for white blooms. Ours are more cream than white. We have many wild dogwoods, but none are blooming yet. This one came from a nursery a few years ago, replacing the gorgeous weeping cherry felled on this spot by the snow. (But a week later they seemed white enough.  Below I added a few more pictures taken Saturday 16 April, just as the rain began.)

Wikipedia reference: Cornus florida

Northern Magnolias


At home, about 8am Saturday, 9 April 2011, after a cold, drizzy night at the end of a week with both warm and cool days, some strong wind, and at least one brief spell of heavy rain. (Through the winter, we have to surround these trees with 5′ wire fencing to save their large, fuzzy buds from the deer.)

Below, a few shots of the same from Monday afternoon this week.

Here’s a reference to Gardening-Guy.com, on what looks like the same plant.

Bluebird box: no luck yet

March 27 through April 2, 2011 — 54 pictures in 54 seconds, with the Wildview camera pointed at the bluebird box. Although I saw a chickadee exit the box last weekend, I definitely saw a bluebird peering into the box yesterday, with a partner on a twig nearby. So why didn’t the camera see them?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TntOoHk8Qys

Evidently the camera needs to be on a pole almost adjacent to the nesting box. A 150% enlargement from one of the chickadee shots:

Home alone with the PPA

PPA, you ask, personally? A particularly phine pale ale, provided me by Erin on a recent visit here from Philadelphia. Phortunately, it came in a package with 23 others. Thanks, Erin! (Yes, I am home alone, partaking straight from the bottle, minding the puppy, while S is away in Pennsylvania for a few days. Phew!)