Spring, I LOVE IT!

Everyone is writing about it, walking it and watching it, it's spring out there folks. Yes it is, step right up and enjoy! Buds are swelling and so are the feathers of the boys flying around outside the house and on my feeders. The loud, rambunctious Grackles have arrived and along with the Red Winged Blackbirds they can make quite a racket!
It, in my mind so far, this is a good spring. Forget that warm spell we have had all winter, this is now and it's spring. I like the fact that Toronto is 2 to 3 days ahead of us in the landscape, they are my harbingers of spring. Keeping it cool here means a longer more enjoyable spring only to finalize this season with some of the best lilacs in eastern Ontario. Lanes, roads, side roads and hillsides of lilacs out for a long spell and for that we need it cool please. For now it's the birds that give the clues to where we are in the season. Bo and I saw this swan with a Canada Goose at Keewatin Nature Sanctuary pond with a Canada Goose.  The ice was still on this pond last week.

When Bo and I are out on our daily walks now I look for last years nests, any nest. It is amazing how you will see the tiniest wrens nest at the last fork of a branch hanging directly above a road. The squirrels are nesting now too, getting ready to raise their young. I read early today about the female squirrel looking rather bald as she pulls out her fur to line the nest. Wouldn't you know it, when Bo and I arrived home there was one of those ratty bald patchy squirrels on my front feeder. It left fast at Bo's insistence of pulling the leash wanting to fulfill his desire to chase it. Whew!

I also read today that the Silver Maple is in bloom. I have a huge one out back along with another beside it on a neighbours property. I decided to look at the Silver Maple and see if it is blooming as well. When out back Bo and I are checking the 'just planted' trees and shrubs out. Actually, I am looking at all of the buds on everything I planted last year and he is smelling who was there last. The Silver Maple is well established, I bet it's been there for 40 to 50 years, it's a great backdrop for the landscape.  Today I photographed the male and female flowers at work at the top of the tree. high up in the wind. There are no blooms on the bottom branches of my tree, they are all at the top. I should find out why, is this normal or can it just happen?
Another sign of spring is unfortunately a lot of newspapers in ditches, driveways etc., these are the papers that are delivered free on Thursday and Friday every week. I have a some pics of that sign of spring, which is also a sign of winter and summer, in fact ALL YEAR. The photo I took today of the newspaper is a 'pretty one'. This photo shows how the home owner picks up the papers but does not take them in the house. Instead he has an urn out front, from there I am sure they will go to recycling, but for now it's a pink splash on top of the urn. I think I will make it a bouquet for him. The other photo's I have taken of these newspapers covered in plastic is an ugly continuous process of unsightly photographs taken throughout the whole year. So this is a pretty picture of these unwanted, unread ever polluting mess created at no cost to the paper who tosses them out on to our landscape. It is a huge cost to us the taxpayers and residents though.

 It was a blustery day today out there, wind, unpredictable large drops of rain smacking you in the face in a exhilarating way. Bo was prancing and I found it refreshing, I do love spring.
Blah, blah, blah!