Spring has sprung!

The robins are cheerfully building their nests and the sparrows are darting and dashing and courting and chirping.

The mourning doves are cooing, and the lilacs are blooming!

We’re early, but here we are.  I hope that a seasonal freeze will not do irreparable damage.

I wandered around the yard and found a few new items, plants that have staked a claim to spare dirt and refreshing spring rains.

top of broadleaf weed

This is Plant One.  There are a few of these plants growing around the base of the pool.

side of broadleaf weed

Here is a side view of Plant One, taken a week later to show the flowering top.

yellow flowered weed

Here is Plant Two, a carrot-like weed that is growing around the pool side, and into the lawn area.

neighboring crop weed

This is Plant Three.  The neighboring soybean field was planted with this last year and it has grown again this spring, spreading its happy selves into my garden areas.  I’m guessing it’s a cover crop, but I have not yet found its identity.

is it wild sumac?

This is Plant Four, a tree-like plant that grows like bamboo.  It colonizes, sort of, and grows rapidly.  The leaves have an appearance similar to black walnut, but have a definitive sour odor that leaves no doubt.  I believe that it’s a type of sumac, but these have not produced berries in the seven years we’ve had them.

close up of new buds

Plant Four certainly charmed me with the simple beauty of new growth.

Those are our early spring unknowns.

The henbit and dandelion have made a grand appearance, and the plantain and wild violets are abundant.

What a grand design Almighty created!

Later!

Dreamin’ Girl