Spring sights

I have to remind myself that it's really spring, since it was so cold yesterday. It was even snowing when I woke up, and the ground was white. Yuck. But it changed to drizzly rain, which carried on all day long, and the whiteness was soon all gone. Here are some pics I took last Friday, which was a MUCH nicer day.

Getting close!

Those were poppy plants. Look how hairy the leaves are:

Yep, the grass is growing. Whenever this rain stops (which according to the forecast isn't going to be for a few days, at least), it's certainly going to need mowing. That doesn't exactly excite me.

Look what Rainbow did!

She waited another nine whole days after the pics I took for my other post showing how big she was! But she did a great job yesterday. There are six of them!

That little whitish one reminds me of Annabelle. There are also two black-and-white, two orange, and one calico. Can you pick 'em all out?

After I cleaned things up for them last night, I tried to get better pics, but she was pretty intent on wrapping herself around them to keep them warm. She's a great mama.

They're in the garage, by the way. I've been feeding her in there because the other cats pick on her and she won't eat with them. She's always been ready to go back outside, but yesterday morning I had to gently push her out. I figured she was about ready to "hatch", and I hoped she'd go to the machine shed or someplace. Later on I looked out the kitchen window, and there she was under the LP gas tank looking like she might be getting started. Since it was raining and only in the 40's, I couldn't leave her out there, so I opened the door and invited her back in. She didn't hesitate to come in, find a back corner and get to work. I provided her a box, which she happily got into.

So there she is. For how long remains to be seen. But at least for now her babies are safe from any tomcats or other predators.

I'll try for better photos soon. And the little smacking sounds of them nursing is so cute. I'll have to try to get a video, too.

Courtney will be thrilled when she gets here this afternoon!

Prom time

It's that time of year again - prom! Our local high school prom was Saturday night. The Father-Daughter prom is always the day after, to make use of the decorations. Looking back at last year's post, I do believe many of those decorations were used again this year. :)

Here are Courtney and her daddy just before the Grand March. Aren't they a great-looking couple?

I think Courtney's showing off her corsage below. Since Mommy works at the the local floral shop, she got to make both that and Daddy's boutonnière. She did a beautiful job!

Have a closer look. It matches the dress so well it almost blends in!

Here they come down the walkway...

Then at the corner where they normally would've paused for photos, Courtney steered Daddy around the corner so fast, this is the only shot I got. :)

Here are Courtney and a good friend of hers after the Grand March:

"Mom, I'm really getting tired of photos."

"This had better be the LAST one - my smile hurts!"

It was all lovely, despite the 40-something degree temps and drizzle outside (as opposed to last year's 84°!). Hopefully all the daddies and daughters had a really fun time.

Rainbow

These photos are pretty self-explanatory. I took them last Saturday. I figured I'd better get them blogged before they're outdated!

Any day now. Rainbow and two others. I'll keep ya posted (if I can find them)!

Update: Gee, I'm updating this before it even gets onto my blog! After writing the above, I discovered that one of the other mothers was, indeed, having kittens. She only had one at the time that I saw her. I'll take photos and post when I can!

Update to the Update: Sad news this morning. All I found were 4 dead kittens. They hadn't even been dried off yet. My guess is that a tom cat is responsible. The mother was there and ate, and she didn't seem to be troubled, so possibly she had others and moved them to somewhere else. Time will tell, I guess. Or maybe not. This is the part of kitten season that I hate.

Ever feel like you're being watched?

After taking the duck photos I posted yesterday, I turned around to head back to the house, and I discovered I was being watched.......

Can't get away with anything, can I?!

Just ducky

Easter Sunday was about as perfect a day as anyone could ask for, weather-wise. We don't get to say that very often around here! It continued nice into the evening, and I couldn't resist getting outside with the camera. Earlier I'd noticed a bunch of ducks on some water standing in one of our fields, so I walked down to see if I could get a good photo or two of them. This is the best I could do, with the camera zoomed in all the way:

They seemed quite wary, and I couldn't get very close at all before they heard or saw me and took off flying.

As I was editing the photos just now, I got curious about what kinds of ducks they were. The best I can figure out from the very white breasts on some of them is that those were Northern Shovelers.

After closely examining the photo above (click it to enlarge it) and judging by the wings, I'd say some of them are Blue-winged Teal.

Then Monday morning as I was waiting for Courtney to arrive, I looked out the window to see if they were coming up the road yet, and I was surprised to notice this duck sitting on a tree branch across the driveway:

It's a male Wood Duck.

Although he's pretty all over, I especially love his distinctive red eye!

Update:  I saw him again this morning. And look closely behind him and down a little bit:

His mate was there, too! I wonder if she was considering building a nest right there.

She soon flew off to another branch, and I was able to get a quick pic of her before they both took off.

Certainly not as attractive as her hubby, is she?

Get Carded wallet #8

Yes, one more wallet. (You didn't think I'd been cured of my addiction, did you?) In case you didn't notice, I hadn't made one for Miss Courtney yet! Now that would never do. One for her was always in the plan, and I figured it would make a good Easter gift for her. Here it is, in the perfect fabrics for a fellow kitty-lover (thanks again, Cindy!):

There's even a kitty hiding inside the pleat!

Although it's hard to tell from this next photo, I made the strap a couple of inches shorter... for her smaller wrist.

She spent the day with me yesterday, since she had no school because of their Easter break. So here she is with HER wallet, which she was absolutely delighted with!

I gave it to her on Sunday, and she carried it with her for the entire afternoon. She brought it along yesterday, and she had really loaded it up!

It was stuffed... with cards, paper money and coins!

I thought a fun project for us to work on would be to make her an "official" driver's license to put in the ID pocket. She thought that was a wonderful idea, and here she is, flashing her brand new ID:

I copied the essential details from my own driver's license, so it's very authentic-looking. Well, except for the background image (which took quite awhile to choose the 'perfect' one). :) We took a new photo especially for her license, and we weighed and measured her, too. We even laminated it! Here's a closer look at her "official" new driver's license! (Forgive the sloppy editing out of too-personal information.) 

Have you ever looked that good in your driver's license photo?!

We had lots of fun working on the license, and I was extra-happy to see how delighted she was with it all!

Signs of spring!

My favorite sign of spring right now is open windows! It got just above 70° on Saturday, and 78° yesterday. It was a perfectly beautiful Easter Day! Annabelle and Josie are pretty thrilled with the open windows, too:

Lots of green things are making their appearance. Snow on the mountain:

Irises:

Sedum:

The rhubarb peeked out before it got so cold the last time, and it appears to have been nipped a little bit by frost. That doesn't hurt it at all, though, and it's growing quickly:

I had to look closely, but the tulip buds are coming:

And the lilac bushes are getting a tinge of green to them, thanks to the leaf buds that are popping out:

(Click to enlarge... it's prettier!)

Spring is here! Now let's just hope we don't get any more ugly surprises, like last year when we got 4" of snow on the first of May.