What a difference...

A year makes. Especially with the weird one we're having this year.

Hostas, April 21, 2011.

Hostas, April 21, 2012.

(Totally unintentional that I managed to shoot the photos on the same day a year apart. I wish I could do that kind of thing on purpose!)

WaaaaaaAAAAAhhhhh...

Truly, my indoor-only cats really don't want to go outside. Especially not the ones who used to live in the yard. Okay, so maybe the Twins are a bit too curious about what's outside that door, but this fussing is more a matter of my not being inside...

(Yeah, I might want to consider washing that poor storm door. I kinda like the algae but, granted, the bird poo is bit much.)

April...flowers?

Would almost rather have April showers, but to be fair the flowers are putting on a nice show. Enjoy while I go figure out how to do a rain dance. Dance in the rain I can--and certainly will--do. If it ever does. Rain. Forecast? Bah! I'll believe it when I see it. [Said that about a raise at work and guess what? We actually received one.]

I give you the humble.... Johnny Jump-up.

*pow* Playing with the black tones slider in iPhoto today. (Columbine)

Trumpet/coral honeysuckle is starting to open.

The vine is covered with buds this year. So where are my hummers?!

Virginia creeper. Creeper, no kidding...

Never mind "tendrils", this thing has tentacles!

I never get tired of looking at dogwood...

Dew on the (grape) vine.

Who is that hiding in the lilac? Question Mark.

(No, seriously, the butterfly is called a Question Mark...)

I think this is some kind of shelf lichen, but it's so dry it has curled up.

Stop. The. Cuteness.

Seriously, these micro butterflies are too much. After spending the better part of an hour chasing the wee things up and down the road, we came across a couple that apparently had just emerged from their pupae. Not only weren't they fluttering around and flitting away just when you focused on them, they let us pick them up... (Belleplain Store Forest.)

An azure. I don't care which. More to the point, it wouldn't get off my finger...

("Uh-uh, lady! You're the highest, safest point around; you are not putting me back on the ground!")

Brown elfin, yet another miniature wonder. Just look at those colors...!

(First shot is fuzzy--I didn't bother to tweak it--but it shows the interesting shape of the hindwing.)

Dogwood Blossoms.

(It's not a bad photo by itself, but I sure do love that "Watercolor" filter...)

We now return you to our normal...

Season. Ick, blah, yech. Typical cold, damp, dreary, raw spring day here in the coastal Mid-Atlantic region. So I give you a few bright spots from a couple of weeks ago...

An azure-colored, um, azure. (Large group of little blue butterflies, Azures.)

He's real, even if he likes to pose like he's a pond ornament.

Blue Corporal, who may or may not turn blue as it/s/he ages.

Happy to report that last time I checked, the big green ogre above had not eaten the wee little Painted Turtle. So long as they each stick to their own ends of the pond, all should be well.

Why do the invasive non-natives have to be the first things to bloom? (Well, getting a head start over the locals is probably part of what makes them successful invasive outsiders.) Top is a Quince. False Quince? Oh, it just gets too confusing... Bottom beauty is some kind of crabapple. Maybe. Needs further investigation. But in the meantime, it's lovely to look at.

Misty dawn.

A redo of Friday's sunrise to make up for this morning's less-than-lovely start...

Oh, yes. I believe in magic...

Because I've seen faeries dancing in the woods:

(The video doesn't do them justice. What looks like snow or petals falling is actually dozens of little wingéd things dancing up and down...)

The mayflies (family Emphemeroptera, how wonderful--and apt!--a name is that?)

were out in Belleplain State Forest on Tuesday, March 20th...

Magic will happen when you least expect it. I wasn't sure what I would find when I chose to walk down that side road, but it certainly wasn't clouds of dancing mayflies that would land on my hand...

(Ooh, and they were doing more than just dancing!)

Come away, O human child

To the waters and the wild

With a faerie, hand in hand…*

*Yeats


And for those of you who must have a name: these mayflies are likely Black Quill, aka Early Brown Spinner (Leptophlebia cupida). Okay, so those common names are actually rather nifty... Many thanks to my new favorite bug man (he knows mayflies! and moths!), Stephen over at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philly. And I knew the fly-fishing world would have more info on mayflies than most of the rest of us: a "spinner" is the mature, final-stage adult. A "dun" is the mayfly stage just before that, the one that comes between the nymph that lives in the stream and the spinner that dances before it dies.

Miscellaneous Felinity.

Someone dribbled a big blob of buff cat on my kitchen floor. (Yes, I know; we're working on Abby's weight. Food is under control, now it's all about exercise. A concept which, having been confined for 3 months in one room because he's one of the new kids, he doesn't understand. He merely follows me around the house and parks himself on the floor at my feet. I think he wants to make sure I don't forget to feed him...)

Aaaahhhhh, sunshine...

Another sun worshipper.

Best way to birdwatch, if you're a house cat.

March winds...

... Arrived a bit early this year, big surprise.

(She normally doesn't favor this feeder but it isn't swinging as madly as the other two are today.)

Isn't it time for you to go back home, darling? (Rufous Hummingbirds nest on the Pacific Coast, arriving back from their wintering grounds in March and April.) I'd like at least a couple of weeks where I don't have to fill hummer feeders! (The ruby-throateds will be back in a little more than a month.)