Spring has sprung - -

Copyright 2023, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Spring has sprung, let me count the ways. I’ll fall (ooopseie there, unintended play on words)

As I was saying.  I’ll fall short.  Let me see what I can detail/remember. 

The boat ramps are in at the state park. 

The turtles are sunning in the pond on the floating trees that fell during the ice storm. Lots of turtles. Small ones, medium sized ones and one really large one, it was the size of a large dinner plate. Or larger. Did I say, LOTS of turtles?  I counted well over 10 in our pond. (Our pond is little more than a divot in the ground, only a few feet deep at the fullest, and about 130 foot across at the fullest. It dries up by summer or fall, depending on the rain and heat.) Back in the swampy area that abuts our property line I stopped guesstimating at well over 20 turtles.  It is hard for me to get close enough to do a good count, so 20 could very well be an undercount. 

My star magnolias did quite well during the ice storm, just a few branches were snapped off.  My pink star has been such a delightful bright pink, the white, has also been stunning.

The peepers are singing at almost deafening volumes. I discovered the other day we have some wood frogs out there somewhere.  

The winter wheat or hay or whatever the local farmers have planted is growing, average height is 4 inches. 

The same farmers are beginning to plow their fields.  Acres and acres of plowed fields.  I’m unclear if those fields were planted, I’ll try to remember to look at them in a couple of weeks. 



The flyovers by sand hill cranes are loud and delightful, I will never tire of that unique call.

The local nursery outlets, the independent ones, have put out the pansies. And of course the nurseries that sell flowering shrubs are quite colorful right now.  

The bright cheery forsythia are close to peek performance and delight as you happen along and find them planted here and there. Waiving their cheers of "Hello spring". Ditto on the daffodils. Clumps here and there, some identifying the foundations of long gone homes. 

Our neighborhood roads have been graded, even had some fresh gravel spread in the roughest areas. Bye bye holes. At least until the next rain. However, those dust clouds, right now, epic! Rising many feet in the air and spreading out well over 1/8th of a mile.  (Reminds me of rural Iowa. Now they have dust clouds - which remind me of mini tornadoes that can be seen miles away on a clear windless summer day.) Speaking of rain, may it address this dust issue?  

Farm equipment, those huge lumbering hunks, are once again on the highways, slowing down the speedsters. I even saw one in town, rumbling down the main drag. May have been a first for me, don’t recall seeing them in town before.  

The building of several housing subdivisions has picked up speed since the good weather has arrived. 

The fiber companies are everywhere. Digging, installing, pulling fiber. Connecting us. Flags marking other underground wiring are abundant, in celebration of Joe it seems. 

This spring we are seeing continued debris clearing from the 50 year ice storm, weeks of cleaning and still weeks to go.  I even see the occasional power lines that have many trees laying on them. It has been about 7 weeks since the storm, every time the wind blows we find more debris to pick up.  I figure this fun will continue for months.  Getting in our steps, eh?

We may see goslings soon. Seems that April 25 was the earliest I remember seeing them.  

The rabbits or other creature have already devoured my small crocus. In this photo they had just chewed on the leaves, two days later, nothing was left to find, gone, poof, or rather, dinner for some creature.

The wild violets are just beginning to bloom around the yard. Because they are wild, and move where they wish, they surprise me each spring, “here we are Carol”, “here”.  

Just some of the signs of spring around here.

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