mama goose still sitting on her rock island nest
Many young leaves are dotting the trees now, spray and foliage both showing. The woods are quite green; the rapidity with which the leaves unfold between sunrise and sunset, or during the night, is truly wonderful!
~ Susan Fenimore Cooper
(Rural Hours)
We got our second covid bivalent booster on the 25th, recommended to those of us over 65. This will make me feel a little safer traveling to North Carolina and being around more people in the coming months. We had our first bivalent booster back in September. I wonder if we’ll be getting one every six months from now on…
welcome spring
thanks for sharing it at your place
may you and Tim be well and feel wonderful
Thank you, Leelah! I imagine your spring comes a little later than ours but it must be wonderful when it finally gets started. 🙂
So glad you get to see some of Spring before you take that big adventure and move South. Your photos are so beautiful.
Thank you, Peggy! When spring comes it feels like a celebration of emerging color after the dullness of winter. I’m grateful for it.
We used to have a Red Maple, but sadly, it died. Your photo reminds me how lovely it was, wearing its red seeds. They tell us our weather will be on the chilly side at least until early May. Not looking forward to that, since cool years tend to “explode” in heat and humidity all at once, without giving you a chance to acclimate. Oh well, we can’t control it, can we?!
So sad that you lost your red maple, they are so beautiful in all the seasons. I bet you miss yours a lot. I’m going to miss my river birch when we move south. I hope whoever buys our place is as fond of it as we have been. Our temperatures are running below normal, too, but what will be will be — it is out of our hands. I hope you get a few comfortably warm days before the heat waves arrive.
Spring is the best!
A sweet promise in green!
Mama looks so peaceful sitting there. a mound of down covering those unborn goslings and as I scrolled down to find where to start in Reader (April 25th) tonight, I peeked at today’s post, so will read it and comment before I shut down for the evening … those babies are so precious. A lucky woodpecker shot as well. I am glad the weather cooperated giving you an outing and a break from packing – whew! The Red Maple seeds look so vibrant and I love the touches of green everywhere. Savor this spot Barbara. I hope you can find a comparable nature center in NC. [On another note, did you get a reaction from the second bivalent booster? I am still wavering, but I remember I had a reaction last time, like a 24-hour flu, but I also had the flu shot the same day (which they said was okay to do. If I go, it should be soon since I would get the next shot before Covid and flu ramp up in November.)
That woodpecker was all over the place, that was the best shot of all the duds — lol. I am savoring every last minute of these days here, every little sighting feels like a gift. I’m sure I will find plenty of nature in NC, but it will be of a different flavor. I remember noticing the beautiful loblolly pines down there because we don’t have them up here. And I can’t wait to explore the North Carolina Botanical Garden through the seasons and all its different habitats. That first bivalent vaccine in September laid me low for several days even though I didn’t have the flu vaccine at the same time. This second time was much easier, I had a mild headache and my arm was sore but no malaise and nothing bad enough to stop me from doing what I usually do, thankfully. I hope your second one will be less severe, too.
One thing in your favor in your new locale, is you will experience that Botanical Gardens in more seasons than you would enjoy now. Our Botanical Gardens packs up all the potted plants by mid-September and puts them in the building where they overwinter. Despite that warm spell we had, no potted plants are out yet due to our unusually cold weather now. I follow the site on Facebook.
I am glad to hear you were okay with the second booster Barbara. After I wrote the comment last night, I kept thinking about getting the shot – finally late last night I made the appointment for this Wednesday after having issues getting a verification code). I’ll get the one in Fall once it is available too. I had flu-like symptoms with the second Moderna shot and the first bivalent shot (which I got with the flu shot – it did me in for being tired … I was exhausted for 24 hours but heard others who did that combo of shots had the same reaction). Better to be safe than sorry.
We don’t have a botanical garden near us, I think the closest one is about an hour away. So it will be fun to have one so close to us down there, which will help make up for not having a nature center close by. Since we’re getting there at the start of summer I imagine we will be spending a lot of time hibernating when we first get there. But come autumn and winter we can start exploring in earnest.
I agree, the side effects from the vaccine are worth getting through to avoid the virus. Not many Americans feel the same way, though. Good luck with your shot on Wednesday!
We have beautiful Dow Gardens in Midland, Michigan … it is about 140 miles from here. It is supposed to be beautiful with all the perennials, plus they have the butterfly exhibit once a year, where you want into a temperature-controlled building where 100s of butterflies have been released and they alight on you – I would like to see that, but not by driving there. Maybe taking a bus trip would work, but not now … Covid is still too worrisome to me, even with the shot. Dow Gardens also has something new called a “canopy walk” – it is a swinging bridge. Not sure I’d try that … where is that adventurous soul I once was?
I am glad I scheduled the vaccine as I will want to get another one before Winter before people are spending time indoors again and Covid begins to spread. Hope it goes well and no side effects, especially as it’s a work day.
I looked up the Dow Gardens canopy walk online and it doesn’t look like a swinging bridge, it looks pretty safe from the pictures. https://dowgardens.org/forest/ I would LOVE to visit it and take that walk!!! But it would be a long drive to get there for you. When we were younger we could have gone there and back in a day. Now we’d want to spend a night in a motel which presents another set of problems. Maybe you have a friend who could drive you there? Good luck with that shot tomorrow! 🤞
I just looked at that link Barbara – I wonder why they refer to it as a swinging bridge? I know it was a big deal when it opened and I saw some online coverage of it, but not gone onto the website before. That one bridge is 1/4 mile they said – wow! There is a place in Allen Park, the next city over from me and they charter bus trips all over the U.S. but especially in Michigan. I have gotten e-mail/newsletters from them for a while now, even before COVID. They have fun day trips around Michigan and I believe Dow Gardens was one. I would like that but still wary of group settings. They go to a huge lavender garden for a day – that sounded fun and they had a trip at Christmastime to the City of Holly, Michigan where everyone dresses up in the Dickens era. The Holly Hotel was the site of a lot of the merriment but it burned down last year and it’s a small town, so it may be a while until it is visitor-ready again. I wish I had no issues with freeway driving as there are a few nature centers I’d like to see too. I have moved my shot to May 10th. Unbelievably we are having another weather day like today – torrential rain all day. I could walk and it’s only a one-mile round trip, but I don’t want to get soaking wet and my boss has been fractious about this no-phone issue (landline is out all week while they repair it) so in the event I get flu-like symptoms again, it will make the rift bigger, so I have to time it around my allergy shot (48 hours in between shots), so made it next week. This ongoing soggy weather is awful and my walking is taking a hit. But Friday-Sunday will be sunny and bright and the car is fine (no leaks they said), so I will go to a few places in search of goslings. Hope I am lucky at Council Point Park as well.
I don’t know if you have senior centers in your city, but ours sponsor all kinds of bus trips for seniors, both local day trips and overnights out of state. We never had a chance to try any of them but my aunt used to go everywhere on them. But I am still wary of group settings, too. A friend of mine in Australia just had covid for a week so it’s definitely still out there. I’d be in the same position as you if I didn’t have Tim to drive me around. Good to hear your car is fine! 🙂 Enjoy the good weather coming — you’ll have to make the most of it!
We do have a senior center a block away from me Barbara and in the past they used to advertise bus trips, but stopped when Covid began and did not resume. We have a booklet of all activities put on by the City so I would read it sometimes. Now the seniors do go to the Center and play cards and I think they can pay for a hot lunch there (or used to be able to do that) … we had a neighbor years ago. She was 90 and would get gussied up, lipstick, high heels and go there every morning. My mom told me she thought she was looking for a husband. 🙂 The only bus trips for seniors (around here) are to casinos – we have a lot of casinos in Detroit and other cities. I’m looking forward to seeing some goslings this weekend … I took the camera this morning and it was sunny and dry (for a change) – zero goslings yet there were three families last Saturday when I did not take the camera. It’s still early, so we may have another family debuting babies soon. Patience is a virtue.
Your senior center sounds very similar to ours. During the pandemic they gave out dinners-to-go on Thursdays. You’d drive up and open your trunk and they’d put the food in the back of the car. Tim used to go if they were serving liver or lasagna. They have trips to the casinos here, too. I haven’t looked to see what they’re doing now that they’ve opened up again. I heard on TV this morning that goslings are dependent on their parents until they’re eight weeks old. I wonder where my goose parents take theirs so quickly.
They used to have a lot of things for seniors – they do have buses to take them places, like grocery shopping, then they return later. I don’t think they went back to all the things they did before. Their hot lunches were supposed to be tasty and were not expensive … I don’t blame Tim for going. Saves you the trouble of cooking liver … my mom made it for my father, that and chicken livers. I was not a fan, but ate it … my parents were strict about eating everything on my plate … I had zero wiggle room about anything. After my father was gone, we did not have liver. 🙂
Forgot to comment on the goslings – I did not know that they were dependent on them that long. That’s incredible. I know with our goslings, once the parents begin molting and losing their flight feathers, they paddle down to the Detroit River where they stay until their feathers grow back in … they have to paddle down there as the goslings aren’t able to fly until they are three months old. Today I saw one “testing its wings” … it has a long way to go. 🙂
Spring is blooming! Very pretty captures, Barbara, those red maple seeds are gorgeous! And a great shot of the Hairy! I already see a hint to the exciting news of Mama Goose, going there next…. 🙂
Thank you, Donna! Everything is getting greener and greener each day, with bits of bright color here and there, and the air is filled with bird songs. They’re so busy and vocal this time of year. 🙂