It is spring – really, it is…

I got up this morning and felt the urge to put on a turtleneck and a sweater.  It just felt like the right thing to do.  At church today, a friend said that she thought about wearing a turtleneck, too, but jokingly said she was afraid people would make fun of her because it’s almost May.  Hey, I don’t care if I get laughed at.  It’s raw out.  They say on the local news that this is not really unusual for New England this time of year.  And I do believe that, but after the winter we had, it would be nice to feel the warm sun on the old face now and then.  Yet we haven’t cracked 70 here.  Even so, I’ve seen lots of signs of spring around.

Of course, I know it’s spring when I hear the spring peepers.  They have been chorusing for a while now.  And that means that the water on the ponds is ice-free and open.

And, of course, there’s the skunk cabbage showing up in its usual places.  That’s a sure sign.

I even found a little fern family coming up the other day.

And the squills.  We have Striped Squill…

…and Siberian Squill in our yard.  Aren’t they beautiful?!

Mr. Cheeky is wondering where that pile of snow went that gave him easy access to a free lunch.

A friend posted on Facebook today that he saw a black bear jump the guardrail on Route 49 and cross the highway.  That's not far from our house.  The bears are out of hibernation.  I think that this means that the birds’ days are numbered in the free lunch category, too.  Sorry, little friends.

Fading back in…

The weather was so abysmal here last week that the whole world looked black and white…

Yes, both of these photos are in color...see what I mean?

One had to look pretty closely to even glimpse a little color.

I’m not really complaining since all the rain we had could have been snow and the snow we had was minimal and very pretty.  But all the dreariness left me in a bit of a funk.

Still, it never lasts forever and by Saturday the sun was shining again and even the squirrels seemed to pause for a minute to enjoy the mild weather.

And as I drove by Quaboag Pond on Sunday, I noticed that the pond was a bit frozen in spite of the beautiful weather and the gulls were lined up on the ice like they tend to do.  I think that’s funny behavior and I always like to stop and chuckle a bit at them and wonder what in the world they are thinking and how they decide who is going to be first in line.  So that's what I did.  Lost in thought as they were, they paid no attention to me, of course.

They did make me think that it’s time for me to get my gulls in a row and start blogging again.  I have some catching up to do and I need to get started!

Weeds are flowers too...

I took a ride to another town near here where I often stop to take pictures of the pond -- Quaboag Pond.  Because I am doing my 365 Project on Flickr, I felt the need for a change of scenery today.  While I was wandering around there, I came across this pinkish, purple plant growing between the rocks of the jetty.  It just grows there on its own, so I guess it would be considered  a weed.  But isn't it jaunty and beautiful?  I took a few pictures  just to get to know it a little better.

Today I am linking up with A Rural Journal's Tuesday Muse.

And thank you, Nancy! I used your Coffee Break texture when I processed this photo.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday…

Here are this week’s prompts:  Three, Hand(s), Fence, Cuddly and Sign.  And here are my entries for this week.

I went on the lookout for THREE things to photograph this week and for some reason these three stacked up cups just called out to me.

Our dog Olive, the pug, has one trick and one trick only.  That is that she can “slap five.”  We actually taught her to “fist bump” and to “give a high five” but, basically, those are just variations on a theme.  Here she is slapping Evan’s HAND five as she gets ready for her walk.  Well, she can dance, too, but that is no trick.  That just comes naturally to a pug.

A FENCE on Quaboag Pond in Brookfield, Massachusetts.

Olive, again.  She can actually be CUDDLY now and then when she is in the mood to be.

Don’t ask me why, but I like this vacuum SIGN.  Not that I like anything about vacuums or vacuuming but that’s kind of a cool store front and I like the wear on the vacuum sign.  Taken in Spencer, Massachusetts.

Hunting Season…

This week’s prompts for Ashley Sisk’s Scavenger Hunt Sunday are Water, Empty, Fresh, Weathered and Ordinary.  Here are my entries.

I took this photo of WATER in Brookfield, Massachusetts.  This is Quaboag Pond one of my favorite photographic subjects.  The day I took this shot, the sky was just plain fantastic!

I don’t think I am alone when the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of EMPTY is a chair.

I also don’t think I’m alone when the first thing that pops into my head when I think of FRESH is a lemon. Here we have lemon fresh and fresh lemon…

This old WEATHERED barn door sits in our front yard and I put a couple of old, weathered hydrangeas in front of it.

Here’s an ORDINARY No Parking sign.  I didn’t notice until I began editing this photo that there is quite a bit of ordinary dog poop sitting under it.