Day By Day

Sunday, April 11, 2010

More Pennsylvania Pictures

We finally returned last week to Pennsylvania after traveling in far corners of the globe. When we left snow had covered everything; now we came back to a world transformed.

As we drove through the gorgeous commonwealth, the signs of spring were everywhere.




This is the view outside our kitchen door!


I saw a wonderous riot of color -- my wife was dismayed. Several months ago she had planted hundreds of bulbs, but now there were relatively few flowers to be seen. What happened? I knew part of the answer -- one of the dogs in the neighborhood, intrigued by freshly-turned soil, had been digging up the bulbs shortly after they were planted. We replanted the ones we found, but surely missed a lot. A few hours later another part of the puzzle presented itself when my wife saw a rabbit nibbling away at a tulip. That meant war! She headed into town, bought plenty of cayenne pepper and sprinkled it everywhere the bulbs had been planted. It is probably too late to save any of this year's blooms, but maybe next year....

My wife's real source of pride in the early Spring are her azaleas. They come in two waves -- light purple and dark red. The purple blooms are the first to show.



And of course the honeybees were quick to notice. They come out early in the morning while the air is still chill and go about their business. They have to be quick, though. By 9:00 am the much larger bumble-bees are out in force and drive them away from the flowers.


Even more spectacular is the forsythia.




And then there's this, gracing my neighbor's yard.


And this is just the beginning. The wonders of Spring in the gorgeous commonwealth are just beginning to be revealed.

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