In one blurry week, BOOM, winter has tossed its hat over to spring, and here we are ready to mow the lawn.
We, as in Mr., not me and the cats. We/He wears the lawnmowing crew hat well. The first time I drove it, I almost rolled it and ran over a tree. Needless to say, I’ve been designated window watcher/gardener instead of the lawnmower ever since.
That suits me just fine. I like to watch and discover the Mad Hatter rabbit hole-like things in the yard. Speaking of that, my random reading time will be on pause for now. One cold and rainy day, earlier this spring, I re-read this scary tale.
I’ve been too busy with the thrift sale prep that I’ve only been able to tend to the garden beds in my thoughts via the windows. And, what have I seen that needs tending to beside them?
The critter invasion of my garden beds. This morning, I looked out at the flowering plum trees and then the flag pole and saw EARS sticking out of the garden bed.
Not tiny ones on a ground squirrel who was wearing a decorative hat, but big a** bunny EARS. He took off before I could run through the house, find my camera and lens, switch them out, and reset the ISO and focus. The result…
He had relocated to this spot and was staring at me through the front door. It’s like he knew I’d try to get a photo of him. As I pulled up the camera to capture his cute teasing pose, off he ran. I’m sure the rabbit isn’t eating my chives, but I’m guessing he’s munching on the daylilies?! Grr.
I’m super happy that we’re finally away from the need to wear a winter hat to walk outside. I do need to put on a hat with a visor and get out there to weed the garden beds.
Soon.
Between the mice in the garage, and the rabbits in the yard, I’m also on a mission to discover how extensive the network of tunnels is for the ground squirrels.
Not only are they living in the front yard but they’re also living in the backyard. The cats and I have been watching a duo (or more) of them terrorizing this garden bed. They are living in the bottom railroad tie and kicking out dirt every time they make a mad dash to go undercover from hawks and eagles, etc. that have been circling the yard.
The fact that we have gone from the temps in the 40s to the 90s in a week’s time amazes me. Just like my bleeding heart plant. From May 4 to May 15, the buds are lining up like little soldiers with tophats on to bless me with colorful beauty in my yard.
That appearance brings with it the nectar-loving birds and bees. Just seeing the Bleeding Heart bloom once again makes it not that hard to have waited so long for spring after all? Right?
I purposely let perennial plants appear without ground interference from me so that spring animals, bugs, and critters thrive after surviving the winter. The rabbits and the ground squirrels are eating the dandelions at warp speed.
I do need to pull the dead plants and larger weeds though. When the spring birds aren’t flocking to nibble on them anymore – it’s TIME.
Mr. and I are starting to panic a bit…our Honey-Do List keeps expanding and before we know it fall and winter hats will be needed once again. But let’s not go there for now!
I know that the spring-to-summer phase has officially arrived when the hummingbirds buzz the feeder and the flowering crab trees are ready to bloom.
Now that I’ve filled you in on crittery things around here. . .
– that‘s all I’ve got to say about that. For now, that is – stay tuned to follow the Mad Hatter to the thrift sale.
I hope that you return again next week, you’re not going to believe the pictures of the MASSIVE THRIFT SALE event! And the vintage treasures that we’ve kept under our hats in storage for DECADES!
PS – Post Inspiration – Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “hat.” Use it literally or metaphorically. Have fun!
PS – Have you read Alice in Wonderland after you’ve grown up? For all my nature loving followers – what are some natural methods for ridding a yard from critters?
I suggest poison bait boxes and mouse traps in the garage. Can you block off the squirrel house with some small fencing, or fill in the hole? I am interested in your surprise, let’s see it!
Hi John, thanks for the suggestions. I’m sure I’ll update on what we try. The mice go away during the summer, they have plenty of other places to live. The ground squirrels thin a bit too when the snakes go hunting. But…we do need to find a way to keep them less active.
I’m going to take my camera with me as we finish up our prep and get ready for the sale!
I hope you have a great week.
It must be so wonderful to experience spring after a cold, snowy winter. Your critters look like they are enjoying the change of season too. Funny, my latest short story had Alice in Wonderland as a character. I love those old illustrations!
Yes, it is wonderful to finally have spring. We know it can freeze again until after mid-June, but it’s been nice to warpspeed into summer for the week.
That is a great story you wrote, nice work!! I just came upon a copy of Alice in Wonderland that was shared in the Golden Book series, I’m going to do some comparisons to see if the story was different from the books I shared. I agree with you the old illustrations are so interesting. I like to ponder how they were all hand-drawn instead of computer generated.
Good luck with the thrift sale. Nice snag of the bunny and other critters. I’m sure they’re happy to see winter pass the hat.
I had to read Alice In Wonderland for a class at Northwestern. More attention was paid to the pedophilia of Lewis Carroll than to the book, unfortunately..
Wow, what class was that in? The attention on pedophilia of many people we didn’t know about IS the big deal nowadays.
It was an English class on novels.
Don’t get me started on pedophilia.
Ah, thanks for clarification. Unfortunately the topic should no longer be pushed aside. It is a topic that many rabbit holes are built upon.
I had no idea that the problem of child molestation in the Catholic Church was so big. We never talked about it, and yet I’m sure it was going on when I was an altar boy. I probably knew guys who were molested and never knew it. They used to handle it by transferring the priest….
It is shocking how prevalent it is in the religious system as well as the CPS system, and…more. I’m glad you weren’t a victim of it. The little girl that died in our community was a secondary victim of a child who was most likely a victim himself. Awareness has to happen for it to stop!
I love spring the most. Until fall. Ha! But spring is so hopeful. And I love your bleeding heart…makes me miss my garden a wee bit. But then I see a neighbor nearby on her knees in the mulch doing her spring weeding and planting. Ooof. I don’t miss that, and neither do my poor knees. 🙂
I’m with you on the seasons to love! I’m so happy with my bleeding heart. I think it’s due to not messing with the debris too soon. I don’t know if this suspicion is true or not, but last year, I cleared the weeds in April and it sprouted too fast and ended up freezing out. This year I let it persevere on it’s own and it’s a happy plant.
But…the longer I wait (or have other priorities to attend to) the more the weeds will kick my arse when I spend time clearing them. You had BIG gardens, I’m sure your knees were screaming. I know mine would be too!
I hope you’re having a great week – thanks for sharing your thoughts, it’s always great to hear from you!
Spring and summer beginning in garden are great for our eyes
A few tips found through diverse blogs against squirrels to be spread in strategic places:
– lemon, orange or grapefruit peels,
– hair (remained on the comb or cut) and human hair (beard), cat or dog hair scattered in their path,
– used coffee grounds spread,
– garlic peels or remains of crushed garlic scattered around ,
– a few spoonfuls of strong mustard or 5 five tablespoons per liter of water, these diluted solutions should be sprayed regularly,
– a squirrel-proof bird feeder,
– naphthalene (I do not likebcs toxic)
– wrap the bottom of the tree trunks with aluminum foil.
Sorry: “5 five tablespoons od pepper per liter of water”.
Thank you for the clarification!
Hi Anne, thank you for sharing tips to try. After looking at the list, I know for sure that I have HAIR – my hair and our cats hair are plentiful… Hmm, that sounds like an interesting thing to try. The other items seem interesting too. We throw away coffee grounds every day. I can try that too!! I’m excited to see what works. Thanks again, I appreciate your thoughts!
I am waiting for the results.
Me too – how quickly do they work?
Do not know , squirrels are my family members…
I’m hoping that they’ll move to a happier place than my yard. 😉
Shelley – I love the “hats” theme. I didn’t take off my hat all that long ago either and when I transitioned, it was not right to hair – I have a headband that I wore for a while to keep my ears warm. I love the bunny pics and hummingbirds … I have a big bunny in the yard and hummingbird feeders, but no hummingbirds yet. I like that you left everything for the critters to enjoy after too-long Winter. We’re in for an all-day rain tomorrow and though today was absolutely coolish and gorgeous, we have 91 and severe weather Friday – enough with the range of weather like you mentioned. How do we have a 30 or 40 degree range in the course of a single day?
I’m glad you enjoyed the post! Whenever the critters make cute expressions or do something fun that I can capture with my camera, I think of you. “Linda would love to see that!”
The weather has turned colder – in the 50s. All of the flowers and trees had just started to really pop. If we get wind and rain, the flowering crab trees will be wiped from their beautiful buds. I hope that doesn’t happen, the bees and hummingbirds are enjoying the blossoms.
Do you think we’ll ever adjust to this crazy weather?
I’m glad you think of me Shelley – funny critter expressions do make me laugh too. I think of myself as a “lucky photographer” when I get a fun photo that I can share.
Our weather also was horrid today – I ended up putting the heat back on, though I swore I would not, but it was so damp out and pouring rain, just ugly. It will be 91 degrees according to one weatherman, another says 89. Too stinking hot for that, but today was too cold. No I don’t think we’ll adjust. I hope the blossoms survive, as well as the hummingbirds. Too cold for them.
You’re very lucky and alert to potential moments to capture on film.
Our weather was gloomy, then sunny, then a storm rolled through that wiped out a tree right next to my girlfriend’s house. She was standing at her sink looking outside as the storm rolled in and boom just 6-8 feet from her window the tree landed. Thankfully it missed her house. Hot to cold brings on weird storms. Many of the blossoms have fallen rapidly with the storm that went through. Sigh.
Thank goodness your girlfriend was okay – that is definitely way too close for comfort Shelley. We have storms tonight and potentially severe tomorrow. Gaylord, Michigan which is about 250 miles from me, had a severe tornado this afternoon. I was watching the news online and it went through an RV dealership and picked up and scattered huge RVs like they were toy cars. Very scary to watch. Yes, these temperature fluctuations. Two days ago I put the furnace back on and today we go to nearly 90.
Yes, I’m glad she was okay too. The storms went through here and showered us with hail. Sadly the bleeding heart was damaged. And the flowering crab trees lost most of their flowers. This morning it’s only 40 out and the furnace kicked in. WOW – that’s so SAD about the RVs. Very scary! I hope June is a better month weatherwise. Stay safe, Linda!
That tornado was one of the worst in Michigan’s history – there’s only 4,200 people who live in Gaylord and it is a tourist town, so they are lucky it was not tourist season yet. Scary stuff. I’m sorry you lost all your flowers – the bleeding heart was spared by the bunnies, but not Mother Nature. SMH. I resisted turning on the heat this morning and we had 52 when I got up, so a little warmer than you, but it’s been cold in the house all day. I do hope June is better weathr-wise. You stay safe too Shelley.
So sad about Gaylord. That reminds me of the wind storm that went through South Dakota recently too. Such nasty weather.
It was 34 this morning………………the furnace is still running.
Let’s keep believing that June will be better!
Stay warm and safe, Linda.
I was surprised to hear that Gaylord plans to be open for tourism for this holiday weekend – lucky for them that portion of the city sustained little damage unlike the RV park and RV dealership where the huge RVs were stacked on one another and scattered around and peoples’ homes that were flattened. You stay safe too Shelley!
Gaylord is showing their resilience to the situation. That’s a good thing. I hope the RV park recovers as well.
On a complete side note, your comments end up in my Pending folder for some odd reason. I have no idea why? So strange!
Yes they are – it seems Michigan has forgotten about Gaylord with the Texas school shooting – Gaylord has gone to the bottom of the heap news wise.
Another blogger said my comments on her blog were doing the same thing. A fellow blogger asked if I would participate in her blogging spotlight series – she wrote me on my About page … two comments and they were deemed SPAM. One fellow blogger, whenever he replies to a comment I’ve made, it does not go to my notifications. So I have to return to his blog as he always replies. No words sometimes.
News is not reliable IMHO.
That’s so strange about the comments. I have to approve all of yours now. So weird. I agree, no words sometimes!
And I’ve lived all these years not being SPAMMY….
I will “like” something here in the notifications area and later on when I go thru to ensure I didn’t miss anything – it is “unliked” and I know I “liked” it … no words.
Your perseverance is commendable.
Thank you Shelley.
🤗
Love the bleeding hearts and all the crittery things! Also, I find it interesting to see your failed shots too, the blurry ones. They can’t all be perfect, right!?
Thank you, Rebecca. Aw, glad you like the photos. Oh, dear, if I told you, you wouldn’t believe the number of blurry shots I take. They aren’t perfect by far. Some do look quite abstract though. 🤔😆
Happy almost summer to you and your family. I hope you have plenty of adventures planned and are looking forward to time at the beach!
The photo of the bleeding hearts is wonderful. Those colors are so intense. Well done. I re-read Alice in Wonderland every few years. The story is timeless and seems to make more sense the longer I live.
Hi Ally – thank you. Yes, the bleeding heart colors are so intense. I’ve seen white ones before and they’re pretty, but not as pretty as the pink ones.
I found a children’s Golden Book version of Alice in Wonderland, I’m going to read it and see how it deviates from the book I shared. It is a timeless tale. That’s so fun that you re-read it every few years. 🥰