This winter, Fairbanks went through a record cold spell and received a record snowfall, the last of which finally disappeared from my yard only a week ago. Correspondingly, the usual spring sequence of greening and blooming has been both delayed and accelerated as Nature hurriedly completes her to-do list to begin summer on schedule.
The willow, cottonwood, and poplar trees opened up last week, but did not offer me any particularly photogenic views. The animation of the bees adds visual interest to the background, though. In the main image, the bee is on a cottonwood bud.
In this past week, the anemones showed up in the lawn. Once again, they were the first flowers to appear, but not by much. The chokecherry trees around my yard and across the street all flowered simultaneously, rather than each taking a short turn as the center of attention. I was lucky to catch this particular tree as the blossoms were opening. The sky color had an additional dose of violet at the time, probably due to polarization, which made for an especially appealing background.
At the south side of the house we have an in-ground planter which has not yet been weeded. I was lucky to catch these ferns unfurling in the afternoon sun. The angle of the light was just right to illuminate the stalks and leaves with an internal glow. I took a few pictures, but the Earth rotated enough in just a few minutes to alter the angle of the light and bring the effect to a close.
A few days later, on the west side of the house, I noticed these blue flowers opening up as I prepared for the first lawn mowing of the season. These are called Tall Jacob’s Ladder. I made sure to appreciate the sight of them and get a good picture before mowing them down.
The saskatoon bushes usually bloom in the first days of June, but better late than never. Because we planted the bushes in the relatively infertile fill dirt where we had some landscaping done, they have taken years to develop. Now, however, their root structure is relatively mature.
I finally have to trim them and they are producing many more blossoms than ever before. Every year we get a larger handful of berries to eat, but it will still be a few years before jelly is a possibility.
The last image for today’s post is of a mother robin who decided to build a nest near our garage door. We didn’t see her nest until there was already an egg in it, or we might have encouraged her to build in a better location. It is enjoyable to see her there as we go about our tasks, but she gets spooked flies away if we pay her too much attention or stay close by for too long.
We try to accommodate her without unduly complicating our work, hoping we will get to see a chick hatch and grow up. Watching young birds grow up never loses its appeal.
