The front yard greeting

The backyard greeting













Not sure how to line up these photos but here are my spring greeters. I generally have to dodge the rufous hummingbirds coming in for nectar at these two red flowering currant bushes. I'm sure they are visiting the others on our property, too.

So much is happening that it's near impossible to keep up with it all. I have seen my first violet-green swallows, turkey vulture, and mourning cloak butterfly of the spring. With the return of the swallows, I finally put up the birdhouse my son made for me a few years ago. It's a special design to keep starlings and house sparrows out. It has a diamond-shaped entrance hole. Check out the backyard wildlife habitat section on the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife website.

The natives are greening up left and right. Serviceberry and big leaf maple are flowering. leaves of red alder, ocean spray, red elderberry, willows, cottonwoods and more are decorating the landscape with too many shades of green to describe.

chocolate lilies blooming in the oak barrel

The sweet heady scent of the newly emerging and emerged leaves of the black cottonwoods cause me to roll down my windows while driving, no matter the temperature or weather conditions, so I can absorb the scent into my soul. In this area we have plenty of rivers and streams and wetlands; and where there's water, there's often black cottonwoods. I love this tree for it's scent, it's vibrant green leaves, its seed fluffs, and it's affinity for water. I have seen some old growth cottonwoods up the Stehekin River valley easily 10 feet in diameter. Pretty big so I hugged it anyway! If you want to see some exceptionally large Fremont cottonwoods, check out the San Pedro River Riparian Reserve in SE Arizona. Short-lived trees but give them a constant supply of water and they will thrive.

So if you see some woman sniffing a cottonwood branch in the next few weeks, come join me!

"There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me, nor any thing that moves."

Thomas Jefferson