One pleasant consequence of the plague that killed so many deer last year is that we have azaleas blooming again. For the past few years, the deer have done some severe pruning in late winter which meant no blooms. Just as the raging Covid-19 has decreased pollution, there's a bright side to the deer plague. For us, not the deer.
Yesterday was a beauty--sunny and not too chilly. I went out to take pictures and pull weeds. I was working along the rock wall where I killed a copperhead last year, but I kinda thought it was still too chilly for snakes to be out. So I was unpleasantly surprised to see a snake's tail sliding away, almost under my hand. It wasn't a black snake or a garter snake--I'm going to have to assume the worst.
I went and got my hoe and continued my weeding, first poking the hoe all around the area I was working. Mindful living, as I've said before.
These little late-blooming narcissi were a pleasant surprise. I'm going to have to plant more of this variety.
It's always a pleasure to see ladybugs outside rather than in the house where they are a wintertime nuisance, what with their kamikaze attacks on pots of soup or other food on the stove. Lady bugs taste awful.
A handsome frog in his lair . . . unfooled by the bronze cranes.
And a lazy blacksnake, taking the sun in front of the greenhouse. Black snakes are said to deter copperheads -- I wish he'd be about his business and go do some deterring.
