Welcome to Nature Friday where it’s time for us to share a few slices of the emerging spring from around our ‘Hood. 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.
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: Thank you, Mum and Ninja. I’m thrilled (and a bit nervous quite frankly) to be able to host today. Blimey…didn’t get the word until late yesterday so please bear with me. In addition to everything else I’ve endured these past 11 weeks since moving here, I find myself in unchartered waters and umm…well I haven’t decided whether or not I like water yet or not. So I’d be really chuffed if you’d bear with me…
Elsa: Oh for crying out loud…get on with it, you buffoon. You’ve managed to waste 200 words blathering on and I’m ready for my post-breakfast snooze. I know Nike is in Missouri…so Just Do It! Sheesh.
Wilson: {Ahem} Right…sorry…just feeling a bit apprehensive-I know I have some big paws to fill today. Let’s see what we have, shall we?
Elsa: Finally! Go on, get with it, man.
Wilson: So temperature wise, it’s been quite smashing. Pleasant temps, loads of bright sunshine. This is the kind of weather I rather enjoy. Spring is moving along, though it seems a bit slow this year. Trees are just barely beginning to leaf out.
Wilson: Mum thought this might be a flowering plum tree. It’ll take a few more days before we know for sure. It makes a keen back scratcher.
Wilson: The maple trees have begun setting their flowers which are littering walkways throughout the neighborhood. They vex Mum because she has to sweep off the patio and front porch frequently but I tried to remind her at least she wasn’t shoveling snow. She agreed with me but Elsa was apparently not amused.
Elsa: Brown nose!
Wilson: I beg your pardon…my nose is decidedly black. It’s a hallmark of us sheepdogs and…
Elsa: {Interrupting} Oh give it a rest, ‘Pony.’ You need to stop taking things so literally.
Wilson: Right, I’ll work on that, but blimey…there’s just so much to remember and keep in check. {heavy sigh} Anyway, as I was saying…spring bulbs continue to do their thing and Mum is quite amused by where they sometimes voluntarily appear. This Scilla clearly wasn’t planted there as it showed up between the sidewalk and an adjoining retaining timber. Mum took a bunch of photos yesterday but didn’t realize the lens wasn’t clean so several of today’s photos are a bit ‘smeary’ with our deepest apologies. But it was so bright outside we weren’t able to easily tell while walking along on our constitutional. Mum say; this plant is commonly called Bossier’s glory-of-the-snow or Lucile’s glory-of-the-snow, but she just refers to it as Squill. It’s a perennial from western Turkey that flowers in early spring. Once it’s finished flowering, it will become dormant until next spring. It’s such a lovely shade of blue, much like the skies have been.
Wilson: Those Squill will become dormant that is, unless a certain rodent, digs it up. There are a gobsmacking amount of these creatures and I’ve quite determined they must be exterminated. Bloody tossers, the lot of them, I say. And they apparently feel the same about me and proceed to race away whenever I get even remotely close (sorry this is another smeary photo). Mum needs to learn to not pull her phone out with her finger over the lens but time was of the essence as they say and she hoped it wouldn’t look too awful when she could look closer at home. Now mind you, I’m a quick, speedy dog but these bloody buggers still manage to escape me. I’ve never even been close to catching them. Mum was not appreciative of my speed…well until she managed to land back on solid ground and resume normal breathing. She said something about agility competition and then grumbled about not enjoying being a human kite. I’ve apologized like a proper gentlemen but these cheeky monsters get my dander up.
Wilson: One of smaller trees that’s fully leafed out is Mountain Mahogany. It’s a small but extremely hardy tree barely reaching 16 feet tall and can be found in Colorado, Utah, northern Arizona and Central California. It’s quite dense and slow growing. I avoided this one because of the cactus planted in front of it. It’s wood is so dense and hard it will not float. If only I could have gotten closer, I’m sure it would make an excellent back scratcher.
Elsa: What is it about scratching your backside amongst shrubs and low branched trees that you like so much, dude?
Wilson: Oh come on…I’ve seen you do it on occasion yourself. It just feels good.
Elsa: Whatever. When I do it, it’s important. When you do it, it’s weirdly dumb.
Wilson: {Huffing with indignation} Well, I never…
Elsa: If only.
Wilson: {straightening his back and puffing out his chest} I see we’ll just have to agree to disagree on this. Mum says she’s surprised I’m not more interested in the flying visitors of our garden. I told her I’m too focused with my duties on squirrel patrol. She was however gleeful there were several of them buzzing around the blue grape hyacinths which she said have multiplied like crazy from when they were first planted and are now all in full bloom. They have naturalized so vigorously; she’s found some on the far opposite side of the garden. She’s hoping they don’t take over like the Lupines did but she’ll worry about that later.
Wilson: On our daily constitutionals, we pass by this tall guy who always manages to make my Mum smile. He seems to look rather sporting and no worse for wear after last week’s snowstorm. I’m sure I could use his help sorting out the squirrel situation around the neighborhood. They wouldn’t be able to easily escape if we worked together.
Wilson: One of the earliest blooming flowers around here are the Pasque Flowers which typically bloom around Easter. They are part of the Buttercup family (and are native to meadows and prairies in many states and is the state flower of South Dakota. The showy part of the flower are called sepals, not petals. Mum gets quite gleeful when she sees them. I took a quick sniff but it really didn’t do anything for me. The buds and stems are soft and fuzzy though.
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.
Elsa: Egad you bozo…you forget to mention that Mom won this week’s Teaser contest by knowing where it was, first. Thanks to One Spoiled Cat for the cool badge. Sheesh, I guess I need to do everything myself while you’re lazing about.
Live, love, bark! 🐾
Elsa: 🎶 humming and singing 🎶 Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo…here comes the sun, 🎶 and…oh, Hiya. It’s me, Elsa…just chillaxing on the sofa this morning…
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 
