The silver grey before the greening . . .

We love our dandelions. Those sturdy first flowers of spring. On this Chilcotin meadow they open before any other petals are brave enough to unfurl their colours.  

Home.  Where quiet is complete. 

And Spring is underway. 

A mossy corner of the old pump house down at the foot bridge

This early morning moose crossing the creek at a well chosen shallow bend.

Now that's gotta be chilly.

That's the flagpole where we have never raised a flag in deference to the wildlife and the birds.  Instead it has become a hawk and owl perch and a white metal pole in an otherwise perfectly natural setting.

Spring.

Cranes overhead.

Drinking it all in.

Other years, Other Aprils ~ on the meadow.

Oh marvelous spring ~

"The Earth is like a child that knows poems."

  ~Rainer Maria Rilke

 





Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!

~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"







Other springs ~ other years, other Aprils on the meadow.





David with one of our ewes and her lamb (2007?)



April Lambs-a-leaping on our front porch :)



We have been talking about getting a few sheep again, chickens too this year.
It's time.



"And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest."

~Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant"

 

Yes indeed. Time to invite more of these sweet souls into our lives and our April days.

Till next time and as always, thanks for dropping by.

Ginty's Pond and Similkameen colours

 Here we are; tucked in down in the Similkameen for a couple of weeks.   

David and I and David's mom went for a delightful drive the other day to enjoy the sights and sounds of spring.  The whole world here is bluebird coloured.

 

Here is a link to Mum's post about the same drive ~ we talked about dueling blog posts : ) since we were both clicking away on our cameras while David toured us around... most enjoyable!!  

 

 

Heading south for a few weeks . . .

Think, every morning when the sun peeps through 

The dim, leaf-latticed windows of the grove, 

How jubilant the happy birds renew 

Their old, melodious madrigals of love! 

And when you think of this, remember too 

'T is always morning somewhere, and above 

The awakening continent; from shore to shore, 

                 Somewhere the birds are singing evermore.  

                

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Tales of a Wayside Inn

 

Mid March and David and I make our annual trek south to the Okanagan and Similkameen to visit family, gather prunings from the orchards for next years rings, do a little rock hunting for interesting inlays and quickly down to Vancouver to see medical specialists who seem for the most part to gravitate closer to the 49th parallel along with the rest of Canada's population. 

We're maybe a little bushed, having been glued to the meadow since last June. It's been a difficult 6 months for us with David landing in hospital due to an acutely herniated disc in his back, and then the death of his dear Dad back in November... been a tough go.  

Vincent is back home on the meadow so we know that all will be well taken care of here. The blackbirds are back too, about 20 now and more every day.  Juncos, flickers, and our spring meadowlark should show up soon ... 

We leave as we do almost every year, just as spring begins to show her bright green head here and there through the expanses of snow which until now have been broken only by the paw prints of foxes, coyotes, rabbits, moose and our own tracks.

Down south it will be early spring.
In a few weeks we will have the added bonus of arriving back home to enjoy our own early spring. And life is good.