Erie National Wildlife Refuge

I walk there a lot. There are 5 different trails in the two divisions of the refuge, 2 which i visit on a weekly basis, at least. Today I saw a doe, a lot of flowers, geese and many different songbirds. I always take the dog with me, and take the baby most of the time. He can do a 3 mile hike on my back pretty easily. Occasionally, when I stop to snap a photograph of something interesting, he gets impatient and says "Vroom" Which in this case, means "keep moving."

The wood anemonies had finished blooming. I only found signs of seed pods, and lots of other flowers. The yellow daisy-like thing is golden ragwort. The small white flower is Canadian Mayflower, and the ball-like white flowers are wild sasperilla. Ye-haw!
I also got our nearest neighbors to pose for a quick photo before I left for the hike this morning.
I can hear their babies cheeping when I go in and out the door. The birdhouse is hung, literally a foot from our door. The chickadees don't seem to mind our comings and goings at all though.

So, all in all, it was a productive day. I got the trim done, washed the car inside and out, stopped at the library to check out a few guidebook, trimmed some of the shrubs, and watched Ratatouille curled up on the couch with the baby. Good day. Time for more baby cuddling and some reading.

Breakfast

Apple Cinnamon oatmeal (not from the packet), Banana-Oat bread, and coffee. Perfect. Even if baby will eat most of it. At least I get all the coffee.

Spring, almost over?!

So it's well into spring, and I've done a lot with the landscape, planting seeds, transplanting and moving some plants, and throwing in some annuals. We've had some frost warnings the last few nights, so i brought out old towels and blankets and tucked everything in that I was worried about.

I have too many tomato plants. I ordered some heirloom seeds, determined to start my own plants this year, and so I did. I planted waayyy too many. I must have at least 40 plants, only 11 which i've put into containers on the front walk to hopefully get large enough to bear fruit. I think I'm going to make the husband take them to work and try to give them away. It has made me realize that next year i'm going to do some larger raised beds in the backyard to plant more tomatoes, beans, peas, lettuce, peppers, and whatever else i can convince myself to plant.

I'm happy how the yard is looking though. I have my retaining wall built, I've re-done the back porch so it's cleaner and more homey feeling, I've weeded, soil ammended and cleaned up all the beds, and I've planted perennials and annuals where i've wanted them.

My next goal is to plant more ferns in my shadowy back yard corner, and more hosta in some of the places where my ground cover is thinning badly.

The only thing i'm really sad about, is that spring feels almost over. I love all the new, tiny flowers, I love my yard filled with violets and hiking and seeing the tiny purple veined wood anemonies carpeting the ground. It seems like it only lasts a few days before it's over... I think i'll go see if those wood anemones are still blooming tomorrow... then take some more photos of my gardens, so i can remember what is planted where next year.