Shrugging It Off

It's time to turn over a new leaf. We're ready for new leaves.



The garden angel is tired of her ermine hat and shawl.



All winter she's shared her cape with the Virginia Creeper that crept beneath it for shelter.




I envy her her patience.



We've all been clinging to thoughts of Spring.



Through the cold and snow - some of us have retained a rosey countenance.



Some of us have just been able to shrug it off.


Getting tired of shrugging? Do click the pix :0)


Had enough, yet?


__________________________________________________________________

YEA! SNOW! AGAIN!

I think I can say I speak for the Robins when I say, "Whhaaaaat?!"



waiting . . . waiting . . waiting. . . (cuter, clicked)



Hard water



Whose woods these are? The wonderful Toledo Metroparks.



White, white, white . . ..



All winter, frozen water has held nature fast.



Even the air is locked in ice . . .


Praying Mantis egg case

Everything is waiting . . for the warmth that will cause the little stirrings of the heart.

Well? If you can't lick it . .ummm . . . 'en-join' it?
After all, it can't last.

As Robert Frost said in his poem "Onset":

Yet all the precedent is on my side;
I know that winter death has never tried
The earth, but it has failed . . .

.

Dinosaur Sightings and Delicacies

You remember the dinosaur and shark sightings in my last post. These are the neighborhood kids who asked for 5 dollars to shovel my drive and walks. Rigggght. It was heaviest snow of the year. They got 5 bucks each.(Actually, the one in pink got 2)



Regan provided the moral support. She also sampled the snow.



I've never seen a kid so engaged in eating snow.



She was consumed with consumption.



The fellas worked up a sweat as their chain gang moved down the sidewalk.



The heat made the dinosaur molt. He cooled down with a snow noogie.






Interior climate change did him in. He collapsed with extinction.



The shark and Regan kept shoveling snow.



When were you, ever, so in love . . .



With a handful of transformed water?



The sheer pleasure of snowmelt on your tongue?

Looking For the Easter Bunny

There weren't any chocolate eggs when I woke up this morning so I went looking for that Wascally Wabbit.


There was a shark in my snowy driveway, but no Easter rabbit.



There was a dinosaur, too! (But, more on that tomorrow)


I went into the backyard looking for that rabbit. I saw this old b'ar who must have had a rough night.



A dinosaur nibbled my Forsythia buds. Hey! Stop that!



A slug considered a frosty snack.



A school of fish swam toward the Sun.


A lone fish, watched wistfully.



A beaver nibbled on the Forsythia twigs.



I saw a mother Polar bear and her cub.



Still no Easter Bunny . . . but wait! . . . .




There he was! Hopping across the creek! Hope your holiday was a Hoppy one ;0)

Sun-drenched Desert Places and Critters

It was nice to be perched in Phoenix for a week. Yep. Those toes belong to a Cactus Wren. Listen?



The sun hones and highlights every surface.



Even the water is sun-drenched. (Listen?)



Gambles Quail Listen?



It's a lifer. Black-throated Sparrow Listen?




Blue Phacelia, Scorpion Weed, Wild Heliotrope


Owl Clover (Listen ?) Just kidding. That's a Pygmy Owl call.


If many large mistletoe plants become established on a single host tree it may succumb to the attack and die. Vigorous trees may abort the infected branch, thereby ridding itself of the parasite. But, consider also that berry-feeding birds deposit fertilizing guano.



My little Black-tailed Gnatcatcher Listen?.



It's just a pile of ancient rock, a couple Saguaro cactus and bit of Brittle bush bloom, but dang - that sunshine sure is pretty.
(Very ancient metamorphosed rocks: schist, gneiss, other deformed sedimentary rocks. Approximately 1.7 - 1.8 billion years old! (Precambrian metamorphic units)



How do you feel when you spot another plane from your aluminum tube window? Listen?



Let's take a closer look. Hey! down there! (keep your distance:0)



Headed back to Toledo, I caught this pix of the last sunshine and up-and-down topography we're likely to see in a looonnggg time.



Now you've got to click on this word Fractal! I don't know where the heck we are here. Any ideas?



ANY idea as to what or where this is?



Ruh Roh. Headed back under the clouds.




(kind'a wish I could head down that path) But . . . .
I'm going to start my Spring cleaning. Hopefully, by the time Spring REALLY arrives, I'll feel I've earned the time to run open-armed into its embrace. I'll be checkn' in on you all to follow your bliss as the warmth and song returns.