Spring things...

The barn swallows have been making nests on the back porch for weeks now... some of these birds have been with us for at least two years. They fly around that back porch as if they own it, and I have to wonder why they don't build their nests on the front porch.  Possibly there's less wind on the back porch?  The barn swallows start singing before the sun comes up.... they're very chatty birds, chattering back and forth among themselves all day long. That reminds me of a quote I read a long time ago--- "Birds do not sing because they have the answer..... they sing because they have a song."

The cows in the neighbor's pasture across the road have been having calves..... I can see two of them following their mamas around the field over there. When the babies get tired of walking or standing with the adults, they just plop themselves down into the lush grass and go to sleep.  When the mama is ready to move on to another part of the pasture, she will use her whole head to nudge the calf, sometimes forcing it into a standing position.  I'm hoping that the neighbor will keep the two new calves, and not send them to market.  If the calves are sent away, those mama cows are going to be walking around the pasture, searching for their babies and crying out for them... the sounds those mama cows make just breaks your heart.

Now that the weather has warmed up, the plants in the flowerbeds have started to sprout leaves.... except for the plants that froze during the frigid nights that we had in January and February. Those particular plants don't look so pretty at the moment. I've cut off the brown parts (they looked like petrified wood) and I'm hoping that the little garden fairies will breathe a bit of life back into them.  I am done, done, done, with trying to be a gardener.  The biggest heartbreak was the wisteria bush by the walkway..... had it lived, it would be bursting with purple blooms right now.  I don't know how old that wisteria was, but its branches were as thick as some of the plum trees out back by the barn. After I pulled away all the dead branches, there was just a teeny sprig of wisteria growing up from the ground, and I'm hoping that will eventually make a new plant.

If nothing else, at least hope still grows in the garden.