Colours of Spring

 I was wandering around the yard the other evening and saw this shadow in the sunset.  It only lasted a short time, so I'm glad I got the picture before it disappeared.  Sometimes it takes a bit of luck to get the right time of day, combined with the right time of year for a particular photo.   

The gooseberries are already fairly large.   I wonder if they're going to ripen early this year?

 

 When we moved here, a friend gave me a little cellophane packet of poppy seeds from her garden.  I planted the seeds, albeit a little haphazardly, and yet they grew.  Some years I get a lot of blooms, but mostly just a few.  I think that may be that the chickens are poking around in that part of the garden, just a little too much in the early spring.   They are pretty though. 

 This year they are surrounded by wild raspberries.  We had a lot in some places last year, but this year the abundance of wild raspberries is crazy.  These are the black raspberries.  They're small but tasty. 

We went for a walk on one of the shorter trails.   I'd love it if it were a tad longer as it's only 1 km long.  So many of the trails in this area are in different terrain and mini-ecosystems.   One area is near lime deposits and has a man made lake.  The trees are smaller, and mainly softwoods.   There are trails through old rail lines, trails running along rivers and streams and even one to a pond.  This one is a circle trail which runs through a hardwood bush lot.  It's spectacular in the spring, summer and fall.  Because of the downed ash trees, it's a bit dystopian feeling in the winter.  

Weather usually allows for several days of tea outside, with the scent of the lilacs in the air.    This year, the weather was wet and went from very warm to quite cool.   I almost missed the lilacs completely.  One evening I was out locking up the chooks in the barn, and the lovely scent wafted in the air.  No tea in the morning with the lilacs this year, but at least I didn't miss it completely.

Years ago, when I was a soap maker, I made a lilac scented soap which was amazing.   It was in the autumn and I was so happy about having a realistic lilac soap for over the winter.    It was cold process soap, so it had to dry for a few weeks so it could harden up.  While it was drying, some mice made their way inside and had a field day on the soap.  Every bar was heavily gnawed, with nasty little teeth mark along all the edges.   I never did get to use that soap as it went into the trash and we spent a couple of months getting rid of the rodents because our cats didn't seem to think they were an issue!