Goodbye April , Hello May

Well we say goodbye to another month , a month that should of promised us spring like weather  but held on to old man winter just a bit to long for my liking and it was the coldest April on record since 1995  but it did bring back our spring birds and start some of our spring plants but that is now being taken over by May, so goodbye April so long  .

           Now we enter May, a month that does promise warmer temps and lots of spring things like going to the garden center soon to get more plants  WOOHOO ! and for things like .

                                          Spring flowers  lots and lots of spring flowers that have bloomed .

                                                     And some garden ornaments are slowly being put out .

         Spring birds are finally relieved that warmer weather is here to as they hunt for bugs and worms  their favorite foods and foods they need more than seed as they continue to  build their nests .

Miggs and I were out all day after we had a nice walk earlier in the morning and she is loving being her old self again  and looks like we will have  to cut our grass soon to .

              The trees , bushes and Lilacs are in full bud now and with the warmer temps will all soon be opening .

I have already seen two Painted Lady butterfly's flutter through and a bee stopped off on the Hyacinth for  a nibble .

So things are coming along now that May has begun and I am anticipating the arrival of Hummers ,Warblers , Grosbeaks , other butterfly's and more . Papa said he saw a Baltimore Oriel on his way home from work and that was just blocks away  he saw it so out came the feeders with home made sugar water  ready for them .                                                       Now I am anxiously awaiting their arrival and funny antics .

May is also my Blogversary . I started this blog May of 2010 , yup 8 years ago . I have tried not to repeat photos and posts but it is hard to do when your a home body and want to share all the nature that surrounds you and what grows in ones gardens each year even though it may all be the same year after year  lol ! I have reached over 2000 posts WOW ! I hope a lot of it wasn't just rambling lol ! and if it was oh well it is my blog to say what ever I want isn't it?! I have had 8 years of wonderful blog friends and reading so many lovely blogs , sadly some have passed on and others have given up blogging but for those who are still here I do so appreciate you all and for taking the time out of your busy days to pop by or comment , all though I will confess that I don't always comment on your posts I do try to read each and every one  with the acceptation of catching up sometimes lol !

                                                                                 Welcome May  I am sure glad your here .

                                                                                           Until next time .

                                                                                             Country Gal

A Bit Of This & That & A Sad Week For Our Provence & Country

It was an overcast day yesterday after having such a wonderful sunny warm weekend and Monday  . Today it is overcast and raining  .  It is nice to have a constant gentler rain fall for a change , the kind that soaks the gardens and land nicely giving it the drink it needs to flourish . Spring showers bring May flowers and that we already have started with our Daffodils .

This one Daff just couldn't wait TA DA !! Look how pretty it is . All our others in the garden's are close to blooming to and after this rain today they will be popping open any time !

                                                                            Just a few Smartphone pics this time lol  .

My Bleeding heard shrub is getting there , why just last week it was barely even visible , now look . I do love this plant with its perfect shaped heart flowers !

Hyacinth's are coming along well to and will be opening soon , I have three different colours about the gardens !

As it rains today Miggs is resting in side  as the dampness goes straight  to her legs but yesterday she was enjoying a warm but cloudy day on her swing , I had to drop the old swing for her as it can get to hard for her to climb up but she likes  this just fine as you can see here lol !  Bless her furry socks .

Wafting through the house was the smell of this Apple Crumble pie for dessert to have through out the week  with some ice-cream MMM it is YUMMY ! 

The birdies are busy at the feeders today whilst the rain falls and all the gardens and land are perking up with every drop .  At night the peppers have been singing and it is wonderful to have the windows open again as the temps have warmed up both in the day and night .  I am so glad we finally have our spring .

Well that's about it for me , it will be a day of puttering inside as the rain falls .

I would like to say it is a sad time for  our province and country  for all those people in Toronto Ontario who lost their lives as a deranged man killed them and ran them down with a rented large white van as they innocently went about their day. My heart and prayers go out to their family and friends  .

                                                                                          Country Gal

It Was A Lovely Weekend

Oh my , we finally have spring and this weekend was awesome . Not a cloud in the sky , plenty of sunshine and the temps both days hit a high of 18C or 64F and the breezes were even warm  .

Papa ,Miggs and myself were outside all weekend puttering , tiding up the yard  the gardens and getting things like the tractor’s out and running checking them over getting them ready for the season , getting our garden hoses hooked up , having campfires and Chiminea fires going and setting up my little bird fountain  and just soaking all the wonderful weather in . Our  Brown Thrasher birds returned today  , love hearing them chit chat and the Tree Swallows and Purple Martins returned yesterday and usually the Barn Swallows follow shortly after , I love the return of our warmer weather birdies . All our trees have buds on them as do our shrubs and bushes and our spring flowers are close to blooming .

I will share some of the many photos I took over the weekend .

                            Of course lots of these photos are of birdies lol  since they are all so active now in the yard .

This little Junco above will be leaving us soon , I wish they stayed  here over the warmer months !

                            

                                             Little Chickadee below was busy cracking open a seed and just ignored me lol !

Miggs has been doing well and loving the weather to but here she is tired from following Papa and I about all day supervising .

There were lots of sticks and branches about the yard from the winds we had from a week ago  and after I raked them all up I put them into the fire pit and had my first campfire of the season  .

So that was just some picks I took of our wonderful  spring weekend , the spring weather that we have been waiting for . The rest of the week is to be warm to and sunny for the most part but will have a day or two of showers  but that's ok it helps with the May flowers lol !

A photo of the moon in the west I took Sunday evening to end this wonderful weekend we had . As I stood there taking this photo the peppers were singing in the darkness of the evening as their sound echoed through out the valley  as a perfect ending to what was a lovely weekend.

                                                                              Until next time

                                                                                  Country Gal

What A Wacky Spring It Has Been

 

WOW ! This spring has been unreal weather wise . This past weekend was a weekend full of wild wacky stormy weather  as most of you have had it to . The weekend sky's were full of snow , rain  , freezing rain and then for us rain again and lots of it  and very high winds . We lost power for a few hours whilst others lost power for the entire weekend , trees down every where , floods all over like in our basement again but not to bad though thankfully , just way to much water all at once in many different forms , it was cold then mild then cold then mild again and then finally it all settled down as of yesterday for us here whilst the storms traveled north east of us and then hit the east coast .

Today the weather isn't  to bad all though still not the spring I would like , it is chilly and snowing lightly , most of it is melting as it hits the ground as the ground is mostly thawed out now  but we do have a tiny dusting in some spots .

The birds have been busy and I expect wondering where the heck spring is and maybe even second guessing why they came back so soon lol !

I took these photos from my kitchen sliding doors . As the snow was gently falling the Robins were able to peck about for meaty morsels still  despite the temps and the light snow fall the ground has thawed enough so they have been plucking the odd worm out .

I can imaging there is slim pickings of worms for them as the worms would want to stay deeper in the ground to stay warm for now . My poor spring flowers are trying their best to keep on growing but seem to be stunted this season as like us they don't know if or when spring will actually arrive properly .

Well this wacky spring weather doesn't seem to phase the tons of Grackles we have about at all from building their nests as this one here has a beak full of grasses , whilst other Grackles are  bullying the other birds about the back yard .

Miggs and I have been going crazy being cooped up all weekend cause of the storms and we really miss our walks  .  But earier today we were able to get out and go for a small walk whilst it was lightly snowing !

                                                  Miggs impression of  the yucky weekend weather we had lol !

Talking about Miggs , She is doing wonderfully and is back to her old self and walking and even running a bit more now  as  her leg has strengthened  to full capacity  and she can sit properly again on her hinds and she can now be off leash in the yard , we just have to keep an eye on her and retrain her not to chase critters , now that's a chore in itself  for us as she has that part of the terrier  instinct to chase  but we are working on it  lol ! .  Like me she can get a little sore and gimpy when the weather is damp and chilly but other then that she is back to the old Miggs again .  WOOHOO !

        I just looked at the weather for this coming  weekend and next week , if they are right, our spring weather will be starting as it should be by the weekend  with lots of  sun shine and the temps will be hitting 15C or 60F in the day and night time temps will be warmer as well , so here's hoping our true spring weather  is here and here to stay  as of the upcoming weekend and week ahead ! fingers crossed !

                                                                                   

                                                                                              Until next time

                                                                                          Country Gal

This & That With Weekend Storms

Pretty quiet here for the most part this week and for this weekend. Yesterday was a lovely day here , sunny with cloudy period's and temps hit a whopping 14c or 58F  and the winds were low and feeling warmer , so Miggs and I took advantage of the day and was able to sit out side .
I took a few photos as there still isn't a lot of spring to photograph yet as it seems to still be in transition  of not know what it want to do yet.
My Hyacinths  are all doing well again this year and sprouting nicely I have lots al over the gardens but this patch was a bit higher up from the ground .

Mr and Mrs Morning Cove were taking in some war, sunshine on the bricks we have in the back by the sheds .

Miggs really enjoyed laying on the grass and soaking up the sun to , I was busy taking photos at this point so she had to be on her line so she didn't take off after anything , she still has to be careful not to dash and take off  after critters with her leg  and we have to watch  her more , but she does do well on our walks and she now can be in the yard with us watching her off leash .
Miggs loves to nap in the sunshine outside  and this is the first real good day we have had for her to do so.
Well now on to this nasty mix of weather of rain , snow and an Ice storm  here in  Ontario is to be having today and tomorrow . WOW  we already have high winds cloudy overcast sky's down this way  but the weather network radar shows for us heavy rains , looks like north and east of us are going to be the ones to get snow freezing rain  and the ice storm . They are warning of  possible power outages in this storm due to the winds and the possible  ice storm . We down this way in the southwestern part of Ontario near lake Erie are warmer and below the snow belt area of the province so we get warmer and different weather mostly  then the rest of province but yeah never know what mother nature plans on throwing at  us no matter where we live lol !
So today Papa and I are hunkering down and are prepared for what ever this wacky weather has to through at us this weekend and to all of our fellow Ontarians who are in the path of this nasty mixed bag of a storm  please stay safe and cozy .

                                                                                      Until next time .
                                                                                          Country Gal

This & That With Mild Cloudy & Rainy Days

Yesterday was a cloudy day , no rain came of it and thankfully no snow either , by the end of the day the sun peeked out just an hour or two before it set . So Miggs and I took advantage of it and enjoyed some time outside  .

Miggs is doing well and is now enjoying more time outside off leash more often now and it is good to have her be her again .


The Robins were out in full force last night as well gathering up as many worms as they could before their bed time .

                                        This guy here above looks like he has had way to many worms lol !

                                           The Gold Finch and Pine Siskins were also feasting before bed time .

          The sun was being hidden on and off by clouds in the west but it was still a pleasant evening to be outside .

This morning  it was rainy and mild and will be for the next few days . April showers bring May flowers .   Which in my book is a very good thing lol ! Right now we are having a sunny break .

                                                        Lots of rain drops every where and on everything  earlier this morning  .

                                                               So today maybe a indoor day of puttering and a day for                                                                             Miggs and Harley to snooze more .

                                                                                    Until next time .
                                                                                       Country Gal