After the storm

They're back!

The tree swallows manage to arrive at the bluebird nesting boxes before the bluebirds ever get a chance to establish a home Chez Miniature Rose. I love them all anyway!

Solstice chez Miniature Rose

Give that boy an A+ in science already

My major outdoor project this spring involved planting a Three Sisters Garden. It is coming along nicely.

I was explaining history and theory behind this type of garden to my 13 year old, home schooled son - how the beans put nitrogen into the soil, which feeds the corn, while the corn stalks provide a trellis for the beans and the squash provides ground cover - when Sweet William gently stopped me and said, "You mean, the plants have a symbiotic relationship."

Ummm .. yeah. I was schooled by the home schooled kid. Class dismissed!

Swan Lake, the non-crazy version

Hello! You look like a friendly human!

Have you any bread for me?

Lettuce? Seriously? Do I look like I need to be on a low-carb diet?

Well, the people at the next dock have Wonderbread, so I'm outta here! Laters!

This weekend has been for the birds

Did you hear the one about the Registered Nurse who received her layoff notice on National Nurses Day? It's actually a pretty funny story, if one enjoys that whole theater of the absurd thing and can avoid choking on the irony.

As my Mommy would say, it will all come out in the wash. I'm not laughing just yet, but I am feeling better after spending Mother's Day with my Mommy, drinking coffee and watching the birds.

Love you, Mommy!

Springing along on the Nature Trail

Something in the genus Hieracium.

Pussywillows

Mourning cloak butterfly

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard checking out the local selection of duckweed.

(Sorry, Mom!) I think I might be a Parseltongue.

No sooner did I wonder aloud if the garter snakes might be awake,

did two of them start rustling through the grass.

Happy Spring!

Rising moon

They come, they eat, they leave. It's the same thing year after year!

The snow geese have found their way back to the corn field down the road. This annual ritual makes me feel rooted and connected to this land. Hello and good-bye, my brilliant little friends. Safe journeys to your summer nesting grounds.

Rose's Rant

Rick Mercer knocked this one right out of the ball park. Or is that the curling rink, or the hockey arena? What. Ever.

I'm not particularly enamored with Michael Ignatiaeff, but I do get rather defensive ~~ no, strike that ~~ I'm downright prickly ~~ about the notion that finding work south of the 49th is an act of treachery. Yes, I'm a US Citizen now .. but I'm still a Canadian citizen, with a valid Canadian passport , who made sure that her son's status as a Canadian citizen was established even before he had an American passport. And, I'm a CanAmerican whose radios are tuned to the CBC and who reads The Star and The Globe and Mail. Every. Single. Day. And I am deeply disappointed at the toxic turn which politics has taken in my home and native land.

I understand why the double rainbow guy wept

If I knew how to make videos and put them on youtube, I might have become the crazy sun dog chick. The sky was just incredible this afternoon! For a brief moment, we were treated to a Sun Dog Display, complete with inverted rainbows. I've never seen anything like it!

A peaceful winter day

Tap .. tap .. is this thing still on?

Well, hello there! Merry Christmas!

Yes, I'm still here. Despite my most fervent wishes, I have not been abducted by aliens. I just haven't had a whole lot to say of late. I've been thinking about lots of things, but nothing that lends itself to sound bites or blog entries.

So, in lieu of deep thoughts or controversial opinions, I offer to you a few pictures of the things I've been making lately.