N is for a New Show Everyday

My sons, Wally and Theo, lived their first years in Houston where the weather was either hot and humid or cold and rainy (with a little bit of just right thrown in). Meaning they really never experienced four seasons. Snow was an oddity as was the burst of growth that happens every spring in a distinct, four-season climate. So they were mesmerized by these changes when we moved to Maryland. Their first spring here, they would come home from school every day and say, "Let's go see what we can find in the yard. " We would then scour our two acre yard that backed up to pasture and woods to see what we could find. The boys were constantly amazed by how much things would change from day to day. And so was I since I had been away from four seasons for 15 years myself.

And year after year, spring does it again--puts on a new show every day.

Here's the show I saw recently in my yard.

The grape hyacinths have started to bloom. These should last for a while because there are still several budding stalks hidden in the leaves.

We have two pear trees. This one is loaded with blooms while the other one is sparse. These blooms suggest that there's hope we will get a few more pears than last year when we got only two from both trees.

Aunt Martha and Uncle Billy gave me some red twig dogwood branches to start my own shrubs. So far, so good. I hope they continue to grow.

Leaves are joining the blossoms on the ornamental plum tree.

And also on the forsythia bushes.

The crabapple trees are budding.

As are the dogwoods.

The nandinas don't show much activity yet. You can tell that birds don't like nandina berries.

The quince bush is in full bloom. The bush was a very straggly with only a couple of blooms when we were first here. We trimmed it up to give it one more chance before we removed it and the bush must have know what we were thinking. :)

The plants aren't the only things that have been busy.
This bluebird nest is almost done.