Swallows, lilacs and greens

Our greenhouse is brimming with tasty greens; spinach and chard and kale and lettuce ! The swallows are busy gobbling up mosquitos and tending to their young. We are enjoying our first bloom of lilacs at the kitchen window and fields of flowers everywhere! It is June 22nd and we are back to work ~ more or less. Today being a beautiful sunny Sunday with a cool breeze in the air we took a few hours out and cruised down our little river in our wee flat bottomed boat.

Late May on the meadow

Late May ... the ewes and their lambs coming in from a graze on the meadow. Our green house is already providing enough fresh greens to add to our lunchtime soup almost every day.

Another delightful discovery on one of our wander abouts ~ on the ground under the tree next to the robin's nest; a duck's nest all softly feathered and holding 10 eggs that we could count. New life on the meadow!

Spring green green green and glorious

In moments it will be summertime but for now we revel in spring.

We are watching with delight as a pair of robin's tend their nest. They have built it quite low in the branches of a small spruce tree close to the main gate. There was one perfect blue egg the first day we took a picture, three robins eggs just two days later.

We'll keep you posted.

May days when the meadow becomes a lake.

A haven for hundreds of ducks and shorebirds, geese, sandhill cranes, hawks ~ we must have enough photos now to write our own birding book specific to the meadow. That would be fun! Here are some photographs David has taken over the last few weeks.

Our hummingbirds returned 'home' ~ right on schedule. The swallows are back and working hard to rebuild last years nests or start from scratch...

The meadow is awash in the bright sunlight of late afternoon. It is spring and there are no unbeautiful moments.

Dandilions, buffleheads and late April icicles

Mid April was beginning to look and feel like spring.

By about the 18th we were back into winter weather. Icicles and snow and pretty darn chilly too. We have no fruit trees to worry about thank goodness and our little crop of spinach and chard are doing just fine in the greenhouse, carefully tended by Vincent.

Our ewes and lambs are chomping at the bit to get at some new spring grass. Soon ....

Our feathered friends are back in droves. Surely they are harbingers of warmer days ahead.

Below are some pics David took of our sandhill cranes coming in for a landing ~ and our creek just teeming with ducks these days! Recently arrived are the buffleheads and mergansers who seem to get along nicely with the mallards. They all duck for cover together when the bald eagles appear overhead... (Pics of those guys coming soon, I have to snatch them from David's camera ...)

Hawks and walks and robins ...

Canada geese on the meadow. One of our nesting pairs has returned.

The lambs and ewes are thriving.

And, the warmest back corner of our greenhouse is sprouting the very first of our spring greens. Chard and spinach and lettuce ~ oh my!!