Welcome to Nature Friday where we share bits of nature from the urban landscape. As always, we are joining our friendly hosts from Adventures of the LLB Gang. Don’t forget to click on the link to see what other posts were shared.
It’s been another crazy weather week with wide swings in the temperatures which have seemed to accelerate spring’s presence. Fifty degree temperature swings are not uncommon around here, especially at this time of year. Let’s see what we have, shall we?
Elsa: First off, on behalf of Mom who has become super forgetful since the birth of her great granddaughter, we need to apologize for not expressing our shock gratitude for being a winner last week on the Teaser. She’s never first to arrive but she was first to correctly guess on April 9th, the day Baby Halia arrived. Naturally she’s been gaga ever since so we hope you don’t hold it against her. Originally she thought it was a photo of a pile of gravel she had delivered many years ago but I convinced her to look for some clues to figure out where that photo was taken. Many thanks to Two Spoiled Cats for awarding her this cool badge. We have our paws crossed she starts to remember things better. {shouting out}…oh Mom…don’t forget to put your pants on today, okay?
The Mom: Umm, for the record, yes, I remembered to put on my pants {eyes rolling}.
Elsa: Whew…anywho…now that we’ve expressed our thanks, I’m gonna wake up the Pony and see what he’s put together for today.
Wilson: {butt wiggling with excitement} I’m here, I’m here…let’s get going!
Elsa: Down Sportor…don’t weird out on me.
Wilson: Well I just wanted to let you know I’m quite bright eyed and bushy…
Elsa: {sighing while interjecting} Ugh…this guy is way too literal, not to mention, way too bouncy. Let’s move along, shall we? What do you have to share first?
Wilson: {giddy with excitement…tail and bum wiggling like crazy} Well, this week Mum installed this cool garden whirligig that she received as a Christmas gift. She had put it away in the garage and forgot about it…mostly because the ground was frozen at the time. But she came across it and decided now would be a good time to install it. It took her a few minutes to figure out the instructions but figured it out. I can stare at that thing for ages. It’s very calming and Mum is hoping it will not only be lovely to passersby but also that it’ll the squirrels from coming in the front garden. Notice the wet stuff. We are grateful Mother Nature decided to gift us a little bit of moisture but hope she is even more generous later today.
Elsa: Erm…o-kay. Whatever cranks your handle. I suppose if it keeps you from going bananas, it’ll be worth it.
Wilson: As you well know, I’m pretty plugged into anything that moves so maybe this will keep me occupied. Otherwise, Mum is going to have to go back to the drawing board.
Elsa: I’m guessing this is the first of many strategies Mom is going to have to employ to keep you from killing her.
Wilson: {protesting and sounding slightly miffed} I’d never kill Mum. I just. am. always. hyper-vigilant about my surroundings.
Elsa: Hyper-vigilant? How about you’re a crazed lunatic?
Wilson: Name calling is not necessary. Besides, I’m the big strong one and must protect Mum.
Elsa: Ha! She’s managed to survive on her own without your help for 87 years so don’t flatter yourself. Just try not to run either of us over, and we’ll all be cool, okay.
Wilson: So…moving along. I thought this week we’d share photos of how accelerated spring is this year. Mum tells me she’s never seen perennials in such an early state of blooming.
Elsa: Yeah, I’ve noticed things in various stages of bloom and I’m not just talking about flowering trees although they’ve been nice. Here are a redbud and crabapple trees.
Wilson: Oh I love that redbud tree and Mum tells me all of us dogs love it too because we always try to potty beneath its low branches. She’s not having any of that and at least with me, she drags me off.
Elsa: Don’t feel special. She does the same thing with me while she’s grumbling something about how she’s not bending over like a gnome picking up after us under those low branches.
Wilson: Oh yes, she said the same thing with me. She was quite testy about it, too.
Elsa: Old people…what can you do but humor them. But I know we’ll both try every time we walk past that house. Angels Norman and Sam did the same thing. Maybe someone can explain to Mom why we do that. I can’t explain it.
Wilson: It’s quite a mystery to me but then I’m the new guy and a lot of things are mysterious to me here.
Elsa: So what’s up with this next pic? Care to explain it?
Wilson: Mum said it’s a mushroom clump and she thought it was rather fascinating. Because of our lack of humidity, seeing clumps like this are fairly unusual. It was quite a fragrant spot but Mum dragged me off again. She won’t let me pee on plants.
Elsa: She mentioned to me she can’t remember the last time so many perennials have started to bloom so early in the season. Mother Nature seems to be playing tricks on us. From poppies to irises and peonies and Bachelor Buttons from seed…I mean, for crying out loud, even some lilacs started blooming. In the middle of April! Say what you will, there is definitely something about this global warming thing. How else can you explain it?
Wilson: It sure seems that way, but I’m a herder, not a scientist so don’t rely on my observations.
Elsa: Boy you can say that again. Trust me, I wouldn’t rely on your thoughts, even if you WERE a scientist. But the absolute wildest thing we saw on our walks from yesterday were some blooming Bleeding Hearts. We were almost to our house and Mom saw them as she walked by. And BAM! she stopped and yelled, “What the bloody dog?!” and walked back to take a photo. I thought I was going to have to revive her, I tell you.
Wilson: It’s quite something, that’s for sure. Well that’s it for the flora this week but Mum was super excited that she saw some wildlife as well. It’s not a very good photo since all she had was her cell phone but she was blown away to see what she thinks was a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk in her silver maple tree. They’re not unheard of but seeing one in the city seems somewhat unusual.
Elsa: We need to remind Mom to get an arborist out to trim that tree. The squirrels are playing havoc with new branches and there are lots of old ones that need to be pruned away.
Wilson: Squirrels??? Where, I’ll get them!
Elsa: Down Pony…I said we need to have Mom take care of it. You’ll just create a mess and hurt yourself or more likely, someone else. I know you mean well but I’m starting to grow used to you and would hate to see you get hurt. Besides, I think I used up the entire veterinary budget this year. So let’s agree to let Mom take care of this. Guess that’s it for us this week. We hope you have a great weekend. So dude…are we doing anything exciting?
Wilson: Don’t think so. Mum said something about seeing the baby again. I wish she’d let me go with her…I definitely want to meet her. Mum can’t stop banging on about how fabulous she is and hopefully I’ll get to meet her soon when Mum’s sister comes to Colorado for a visit in a couple of weeks. We hope you have a splendid weekend and are able to get outside and take in the beauty Nature shares with us. In the meantime, we’ll leave you with this week’s image of the little sprout on her one week anniversary.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
It’s been an exciting and busy week around the Ranch. For a couple of days both me and the New Guy wondered why Mom was gone so much. I mean, what could possibly be more important than us? Elsa here. Well, it turns out our family increased in size. We will now have five, yes FIVE living generations around the Ranch House. How is that possible, you ask? Mom’s first granddaughter gave birth to a healthy, beautiful baby girl (who was just a tad reluctant to leave the comfy womb but who finally made her debut at 12:34 pm on Tuesday). Mom, Dad and baby are all doing well even if they’re massively tuckered out.
Wilson: I can see why she likes them. They are quite lovely. Well, she really doesn’t mind the red ones, but she says she wanted to see other colors. She still hasn’t seen yellow, white or purple ones yet…
Happy first Friday of April peeps…it’s time for another Nature Friday post. Well spring continues to do spring things…you know…like dump tons of snow on the Northeast, bring 70’s and 80’sF to the central portion of the country with higher temps in gulf states with buckets of moisture to the West Coast. Good golly, it seems like Mother Nature is truly cheesed off. As we typically do on Friday’s, we’re joining our pals at 
Elsa: You’re so right there, Pony. Some people are just beasts.
Today we’re doing things a bit different. Elsa had a major dental procedure and removal of a cyst earlier this week and while she is doing very well, she said she would allow the ‘New Guy’ to to handle today’s post. Wilson was thrilled for the opportunity, with a bit of trepidation but was hopeful he can do a proper job so as to stay in his sister’s good graces. Take it away, Wilson!
Wilson: Well that’s all I have this week. Profuse thanks to my sister for giving me this opportunity as she recovers. Hopefully she’ll be back full stop next week for another go at Nature Friday. All of us at the Ranch hope you have a jolly good weekend and are able to see Nature first hand.
Happy Groundhog Day. Elsa here. If you believe in the predictions of some chubby Pennsylvanian rodent, looks like that Gobbler Knob resident, Punxsutawney Phil, predicted an early spring this year. While I’m not convinced a groundhog can accurately predict Spring’s arrival, apparently this phenomena has been celebrated for ages. How did this custom originate, you ask? Well, I’m here to give you a bit of background on this 
The Mom: Those were fascinating, weren’t they? Did you know those crescent-shaped shadows are the result of various rays of light passing through to the ground. Only some rays at a certain angle can make it through and those that do are little crescent shapes of the eclipse itself as the Moon passes in front of the Sun. These donut-shaped shadows are the result of the “ring of fire” peak during the eclipse. How cool is that?!
Good Friday morning and welcome to another edition of Nature Friday where we join our pals 
