Hoppy Easter

We might get rain or snow flurries tonight so we had an instant Easter egg hunt just now. The winds are fierce and blowing so rather than hang my wonderful (Thank you, Gillian) eggs in the apple tree I placed them gently in the daffodils. The garden is awash in yellow, even the Ribes are blooming. It will be an early spring for sure. We need rain again, we aren't in a drought yet but perilously close.

I discovered another sign that nature never wastes anything. We had cut a low hanging branch off the maple tree and the sap was dripping onto the flagstone below, a large wonderful circle of heaven for the ants.  We are the proud (?) caretakers of about a million tiny ants and they swarmed all over this manna from above. See below.....

If you'd like something to count, double click on the photo and have at it! The following day all of the original sap was gone. When the sap ran again a couple of days later, they were back and cleaned up that batch as well.  Just as the coyotes keep the rabbits in check and the snakes the mice, the ants keep the sap from being a sticky mess.

I have ordered poor orphan snakes from the local snake catcher so that we can put the balance back in our yard. Some of my citified neighbors kill the wonderful creatures and wonder why they are over run by mice and pack rats! Hello? They also feed their dogs outside! Not a good idea. We had 4 coyote kills the other night. Don't know what they got but the ravens were having a ball the next morning with the leftovers!

I got the garden cleaned up last week, the garlic is up 6 inches and happy and green. Time to plant!
Yes!