Colours of April

Today I wandered out to the front garden to see if I could pick a bit of cat nip.  It grows there as a weed and Kevin especially, likes it when it is very fresh and very young.  Well, I only found a few little tiny catnip leaves, but I did find all sorts of other cool stuff.

The maple trees are flowering!   It is such a glorious sign of spring.  The flowers are tiny and a deep red colour, but they give the illusion that leaves are coming.   I noticed that the weeping willows are starting to turn that lovely early springtime yellowy green.  While we haven't had an awful winter, it does feel like we are really ready for spring.   I had to scrape off an inch of snow off my windshield on Thursday, and I am so over that fun!

The grackles and starlings have been flying overhead, in large, noisy flocks.   When I kept the bird feeder full through the springtime, we used to get an awful lot of birds nesting nearby, eating at the feeder and screeching their calls and birdsong in ways which were no longer charming.   Now, the feeder is empty and most of the grackles and starlings move on.   It's not nearly as loud here in the mornings anymore and it costs a whole lot less in bird feed as well.

The Siberian Irises are blooming.  What a tiny but vibrant flower!  There are these lighter violet colours with the yellow markings and a dark purple with white markings.   They are only a few inches tall but such a fancy little package they are!

The crocuses are looking a little ragged though.  First, I think I need to do some serious weeding and toss them a bit of fertilizer or compost.  Second, the chooks dig around the flower beds looking for bugs and worm.  They tend to tromp over the poor flowers.  Still, they are a pretty burst of colour this time of year.

I've naturalized some winter onions.  They are a perennial which are sometimes called Egyptian Walking onions.  They grow little onions at the top of a flower stalk, which falls over and the onions will self seed.   I tend to just pick them and plant them where I want them to grow.  They are ready to start harvesting.   These are quite sweet and really, they can be eaten out of hand if you are so daring.  In a quick lunchtime soup, they are a lovely addition.