Here are a few pictures I snapped today as I took a s-l-o-w, halting tour through the yard.
A dandelion getting ready to further the dandelion species
with its seeds.
An old flaming azalea that we pruned back in hopes of spurring
growth. It looks like it worked. Every year, people stop at our
house and say, what’s that?
Iris, the day before it fully blooms.
Montana blue, Polly says. Whatever it is, it is pretty,
Japanese Iris
When we bought our home in 2007, it came with a deep, cavernous well pit in the backyard. The well pit had been abandoned many years ago when the village of Ney put in a water system.
The well pit was a concern because we had visions of one of our grandchildren figuring out how to get the metal lid off the well pit and then, with great curiosity, climbing down into the well pit.
We filled the well pit in with construction debris, laughing…that hundreds of years from now an archeologist will be digging in our back yard and stumble on the building remains in the well pit. We are funny like that. When we remodeled our home, we taped newspapers inside the walls and wrote our names and the date. This is our way of saying, we were here.
Once we filled the well pit with debris, we covered it with a lot of dirt and Polly turned it into a herb garden. This Spring we had to add some more dirt because the sparrows had taken to dusting themselves in the herb garden and had worn down the dirt in spots all the way to the metal well pit lid.
The Chives are in full bloom this week. I took a few pictures. I hope you enjoy them. I hope you notice the little helper that helps to make so much of what we have in our yard possible.
For the camera geeks. I shot these pictures with my Sony A77 DSLR and a Sony DT 2.8/30 Macro Lens. Due to the wind today, I had to bump the shutter speed up to 1/500 sec. The minimum focus distance is 5.1 inches. This lens is quite affordable.
The Starlings have arrived in full-force today. This happens every year. For a short period of time, the Starlings eat everything they can get their beak into, especially the suet. Here are a few pictures I took today of what I like call the suet raiders.
My apologies for the odd pictures sizes. I forgot I had turned off the aspect constraint the other day when I needed to do some manual cropping.
A Spicebush Swallowtail that found a resting spot in our garden today. A beauty to behold.
It’s late Spring in the rural, NW Ohio community of Ney.
The asparagus continues to grow, as does the rhubarb. Soon they will be done. I wonder will they again next year break through the early Spring ground to bless us with their fruit?
The apple trees blossomed and even survived a freeze. This year we added a cherry tree and peach tree. I can’t wait to put the first bite of cherry pie into my mouth a few years from now. I wonder, will I still be among the living?
The maple tree didn’t make it. For four years it fought, trying to stay alive, every Spring displaying fewer and few buds. This Spring, there were no new buds. I wonder what killed our friend?
In its place we planted a river birch. Actually, we planted two river birch trees and two azalea bushes and two lilac bushes. I wonder, will we run out of yard someday?
The garden is planted. Peas, beans, onions, lettuce, beets, and spinach. And then there’s the nursery plants…tomatoes and peppers. I wonder, will they all produce this year?
We planted more wildflowers. The birds, spiders, and butterflies thank us. We planted marigolds sweet peas, and best of all, we planted four different varieties of sunflowers. I wonder if the birds know that we plant the sunflowers for them?
The honeysuckle we planted a few years ago is now taking over the trellis and the ivy is now making its way up the fence. Everywhere we look we see beauty. Yes, we see the fruit of our labor but it is more than that. The sun shines, the rain comes, the earth gives up its nutrients. All so we can revel in the colors of life and have food to eat. I wonder, will climate change ruin all of this?
It is dusk now and the sun is setting in the west just like it has for the 20,378 days I have spent on this earth. I wonder if my neighbors understand our star is dying?
As the sun sets, Ney becomes quieter. It is one of those nights where every sound can be heard. I wonder, will my neighbors turn off their TV long enough to listen?
And then it starts. A croak. silence. The same croak again. The croaker is in our back yard. He is close and his froggy voice booms into the night. And then, just like a choir singing its parts, another frog responds. And the croaking choir sings out its song. It is such a beautiful sound. The air is still and I can tell that some of the frogs are way off in the distance. Back and forth they croak, each trying to woo to a female frog. It is their love song that I am hearing. I wonder, are we capable of stopping the spinning wheel of the rat race long enough to hear and see what a wonderful world we live in?
I wonder…
Here are a few pictures I took today while walking through our yard. I hope you enjoy them.
My granddaughter Emma stopped by to “help” me. 
Here are a few pictures I took today while walking through our yard. I hope you enjoy them.
Flowering Japanese Cherry
Flowering Japanese Cherry
Flowering Crabtree
Apple Tree
Apple Tree
Phlox
Here are a few pictures of some of the flowers in our yard that bloomed this week.
Here are a few pictures of the flowers in our yard that have recently bloomed.
Polly and I drove to Fort Wayne today to have lunch with Mike. Mike is a regular reader and commenter on this blog and I count him as one of my friends. I took a couple of pictures…Mike said, you are not going to put them on your blog, are you? 
Mike and Polly
Mike and Bruce
And a totally unrelated but a pleasant surprise when we came home:
The Crocuses have bloomed
Right now, it is a mixture of rain, sleet, and ice. Later tonight, the precipitation should turn to snow. Here are a few pictures I took in our backyard.
Ice on Pamplys Grass
Ice on Apple tree
Ice on Asparagus plants
Ice on clothesline