Spring activities and sights around our new home

Spring means getting outside - Miss Fatcat Eleia has started her exercise program including climbing trees to see where Mr. Chippy might be hiding, or Mr. Squirrel? She's a busy girl but definitely needs to reduce and shape up.

Christopher on the other hand, figures he is older and requires more sleep and his activities as you can see by the dust on his coat and bits of grass includes more rolling around on the lane or lawn to expose his tummy for petting and scratching. Which I admit, he gets lots of. He usually prefers to snooze in one of the deck chairs.

This set of birdfeeders is well attended as you can tell by their emptiness... the scarlet/orange crest of a red-bellied woodpecker can be seen on the edge of the suet feeder. Lately it has proven attractive to a pair of orioles. I'm hoping they will mate, nest and stick around for a while - such lovely colour. I put out orange sections now - they carry them off - so I'm optimistic.

This set of feeders hanging from the clothesline is very popular with the American goldfinches. There are only a few seen here, but often there are up to 30 or so fluttering like gold pennies around the yard.

Bloodroot suddenly appear amidst the detritus left behind by Hydro crews scouring the landscape underneath power lines... so pretty but gone within a week as summer visits briefly and has them wide open and then gone leaving only their leaves.

The dogs rest in the shade alongside the newly planted beginnings of a garden restoration. This is a favourite afternoon spot with lots of damp black earth to scratch into hollows to cool hot tummies. Not hopeful for planting grass... maybe I leave that space as a dog parking place?

Finally the day glows to an end across the lake - the sun moving northward along the north-western edge of this beautiful area. There are many beautiful views around here, but I haven't yet discovered the opportunities to find wildlife where I can get close enough to photograph them.

Hope you are having a wonderful spring - and thank you to all of you who keep checking back to this blog and encouraging me to get back to writing... So at least once a week, more often if possible - I'll be here.