Distracted by nature's beauty . . . .

When the world seems to be going bat shit loco and the political bullshit gets too deep, a walk around the backyard with my camera always seems to flush the crap out:

Some strawberries are coming this summer!

 

Sweetpeas looking for a net to latch onto . . . .

The bees are active this year, though the hive we had in an old trash can on our property seems to have not survived the winter.

I worked at corralling this rose bush to keep the deer from decimating it . . .

. . . and here's one of it's new blossoms.

Our pond is full to capacity in contrast to last year's muddy bog.

The face of future blackberries.

 

The face of future blueberries.

A walk around the backyard:

I love to just stroll around our backyard to check out the sights, and no matter how many times I do, I am rewarded with surprises and treats:

I call this guy "Lily Spider", because he is uniquely adapted to hide in and on our lilies to catch his dinner.

"What're you looking' at?"

Our neighbor's tree is in the middle of the slowest escape from her backyard ever . . . .

This is the kind of shit I do for my wife---literally. One of our neighbors has goats, and I got a load of the end product of their digestive process for our compost pile, eventually to be added to our garden. Potent stuff!

Our salad bar, though I wouldn't eat the jade plant at the end---it's only for display.

Pictures of Spring and Things

The world outside our backdoor is full of life and color, that's thanks to Mother Nature and my wife. Here's a sampling:

Plants awaiting planting

Twin poppies and friend

Day lily on the day shift

Onion in bloom

Cecile Brunner rose

Bed in progress

Spiders normally have me screaming like a girl, but I do like taking pictures of them.

The wild rhodies are in fine fettle. 

This fat fella is obviously making good use of symbiosis with a lily.

Abbey deCluny rose

Potatoes in a barrel.

Mystery rose from a start dating back years.

It is definitely going to be a colorful summer!

Berry bee

We are having a great year for blackberries, and a lot of the credit must go to these little guys:

We do owe so much of our sustenance to the pollination provided by bees and other spreaders of the botanical gamete, and I'd like to express my gratitude right here and now. I hope the rest of humanity, including its corporate embodiment, are as respectful of this diligent worker. Without them and all the other elements of nature's great machine, we wouldn't last a blink.