More Morels

A bit past their prime but tasty nonetheless we found a handful of the "big yellow" morels last evening. Also did a bit of photography after encountering a box turtle and some gorgeous flowers in the woods; the large flowered trillium was in all its glory.

 Trillium

 Dwarf larkspur

 Big yellow morels

Box turtle

Little Darby

A perfect day on National and State designated scenic river Little Darby Creek this past Sunday. 

 It just doesn't get any better than this!

All the spring blooms were out in full color, we saw ducks and  found morels. 

With with flotsam

 Virginia Bluebells

Morels. 

Andrew and me

Our friends Kristen and Dan

 Soft Shell Turtle

Dwarf larkspur

Luxury Nests

The baby goldfinches in our yard will have posh nests this spring. I gave Andrew a bunch of my shorter angora fiber that I took off my french angoras this spring and he put it in a dispenser for the birds.  Two pairs of goldfinches were busy yesterday gathering up fiber for their nest. One of them got so exuberant that she was covered with the stuff.  It was so much fun to watch and they seemed  delighted and almost playful as they flew back and forth all day collecting their treasure.

Discovering the fiber

Off with the first batch

 Getting pretty exuberant with the "harvest"

 The male "supervising"

 Picking up another batch

This is mine! Go find your own!!!

Doggie Diva

So one evening last week I photographed my rabbit amongst the lilacs. Daisy was with me watching the entire time. The other night I had my camera in hand and was walking around the yard taking photos of some spring flowers and such and on the spur of the moment I asked Daisy if she wanted to have her picture taken. Smart dog that she is she understood what I had asked and jumped right up onto the lawn chair and proceeded to ham it up for the camera. The sparkles are points of sunlight that were streaming through our fence that I converted using a setting on our camera.

Among the Lilacs

This is Pixie, my French Angora doe, and from the first litter of FA's ever born at Lilac Haven in 2006.  She's a gentle girl and loves attention. In the morning she demands scratches before she will eat  her food.  Our lilac bush was beautiful last evening and I wanted to get some photos of Pixie while her coat was prime as I will have to give her a haircut in the near future as she is starting to shed anyway and it is getting hot outside.

The Mother Lode

Well maybe not really the mother lode but as far as we are concerned it will suffice.  Monday at lunch DH and his friend and I were discussing the dismal morel conditions the have plagued us the past couple years. Hopeful in terms of this years "crop" we noted that Tuesday night (tonight) probably be a good night to search as it is the first warm day we have really had and it followed an all day rain from yesterday.  Andrew and I were traipsing around in the woods, him leading me into in the worst jungle of multi-flora rose, grape vines and honeysuckle, and I was just commenting complaining that I wasn't confident that were we in a productive area. I stopped for a rest and bent over to stretch my back and low and behold found myself staring at a large morel.  Needless to say it was under a dead elm tree and the patch yielded our entire find this evening minus two. Of course getting them entailed crawling on the ground and underneath several tangles of brambles. It was a beautiful night in the woods. We came home and I fixed morels for a snack and here we now sit on the couch fighting to stay awake and dreading going to work tomorrow. 

SpRing HaS SpRung