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.

Life’s little things…

Why is it that it’s always on the weekend that the kid or the dog gets sick?  With the kid, you can always take them to the emergency room, but it’s not quite so easy with the dog.  Olive, the pug, started acting strangely in the afternoon on Saturday.  The strangeness continued on into the night.  She wanted to go out all the time but didn’t seem to do anything.  Greg was out of town so it left me holding the leash, so to speak.  Olive was up all night, in obvious discomfort, and I was up with her.  Believe me, this is not normal for a dog who usually requires 18 hours of sleep to have the energy to get up for dinner.  Well, long story short, it seems that she has a bladder or urinary tract infection, poor baby.  On Sunday, she actually seemed to feel a lot better, but we have an appointment this afternoon at the vet to make sure all is truly well.  I, on the other hand, still feel like I’ve been hit in the head with a two by four.  It’s no longer so easy to lose that much sleep and snap back.   But I will feel much better when Olive has a clean bill of health.

Meanwhile, she walked with me to check out the new ferns that are coming up.  I think they may be my favorite thing about spring.

The Double Date

Spring Dance

In other news, I am displaying some photos at the Spencer Public Library for May and June.  It’s part of a program with the Massasoit Art Guild to display local artists’ works at various places in the area.  Here’s one of the photos that I hung over there.

I think that it is incredibly difficult to decide what actually rates a public showing when it comes to my photos.  Good photography is so very subjective.  But I just kind of pick things I like and go from there.  That can be a long and arduous process.  I know from being on Flickr that what I like isn’t always well received publically. But what the heck, as far as hanging stuff in the library, it’s good to have the exposure…no photography pun intended.  The thing I like most about this program is getting to see the insides of these fantastic library buildings.  The Richard Sugden Library in Spencer is a truly beautiful structure.

  I actually have this pipe dream of photographing all the public libraries in Massachusetts.  There are 370 libraries here and I have photos of about six.  I guess I better get some sleep and start moving.

Another Scavenger Hunt…

The last day of September already.  The year has flown by and so has this past week.  But I did get something together for the Scavenger Hunt.  The prompts are yellow, getting ready, bright, teeny tiny and connections.  Here you go…

YELLOW:  That’s kind of an easy one this time of year in Massachusetts.

GETTING READY:  We are leaving later this week for a trip to the Almalfi Coast in Italy.  I am definitely not ready at all but I do have a couple of books and my passport.  It’s a step in the right direction.

BRIGHT:  I was wandering around the other day and I noticed the sun on a bunch of ferns.  The light seemed to pick out this one particular frond.  I love that.  It brightened my day.

TEENY TINY:  The seeds on a burning bush are teeny tiny.  That does not hamper them from spreading themselves all over the place.  This is a non-native, invasive species in Massachusetts and if you aren’t careful, they get to be a bit insidious.  Beautiful though they are…that’s not a good thing.

CONNECTIONS:  We live in a wired world these days and through the wires we make lots of connections.  Sometimes it seems like a bad thing but mostly I feel like it has made the world a smaller place.  I am hoping these connections will some day help us to learn to live together as friends and to accept our differences as part of the wonder of the world.

Here’s an aside that I found amusing in this really pretty awful photo of my very messy desk.  I didn’t notice it until I was editing this picture.  My phone says “Barb Fully Charged.”  If you knew me at all, you would laugh, because I have never been accused of being “fully charged” by any one.  I tend to be more “partly charged” or “in need of a charge.”  I figure that's why there is coffee in the world.  Oh, well….

LINKING TO ASHLEY SISK'S SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY.