Saturday so...

 

Hummingbird at Cardinal Flower, photo by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service via CC PDM 1.0.

Monarch Butterfly on Swamp Milkweed, photo via Canva

from the internet

Allen's Hummingbird

Quick shots out the window of pileated woodpecker. His huge blaze caught my eye but then he kept hiding from me.

From the internet

Breakfasting squirrel keeping warm while it was 44 degrees last Mon. morning (and due to be colder Tues). we had frost warnings again. But yesterday (Fri.) it got to 80 F.

Sharing with Saturday's Critters

And for Skywatch Friday...let's look a bit closer at Lake Tomahawk.

I spy a family of Canada Geese! Fortunately they were swimming in my direction.

Somebody was honking up a storm. These were tiny little goslings to have been way out in the lake. 

It may have been this lone goose, or maybe the family's protective ones. I imagined that the lone goose might have been their son or daughter from last year, and wanting their parent's attention. Or something else only geese know about...

Friday Florals

 A mix of early spring flowers to share today...(though this is now getting close to late spring)

Ornamental Cherry

Trout lily

Red trillium

And I enjoyed waiting for someone to work on a new key for my car by taking photos of some of the plants for sale at the hardware store the other day.

I think the guy told me this was a fire spike, but would love someone to give me a correct name.

Sharing with Floral Friday Fotos

Going outside my own life

 

On the other side of the ridge, near Old Fort, April 6. Dry conditions with winds have given North Carolina burn bans for most of April.

A dashboard bobble head collection. (No, I don't intend to do a series of dashboard photos in cars!!)

A  friend's first great grandchild. My first great grandbaby will be born in October!

This is the next book I will purchase. I read Maria Popova's "Marginalian" newsletter twice a week. She's brilliant.

Next to read: a friend loaned me her copy of "The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year."

 I'll start that as soon as I  finish "Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World."

These three are paper and print books. I can't recommend Sand Talk enough, though it is best read slowly, in my opinion. I love learning the symbols from the Indigenous People of Austrailia.

And I admit to listening to some lighter novels in the meantime, as I lie in bed waiting for sleep and playing solitaire. I have 6 more books on hold on the library system's Libby.

What are you reading?

Rear Windows part 2

 To finish my posts about a silly collection of windows of cars and trucks in front of me in traffic over several weeks in Tampa FL before I retired.

Rear Windows:

Adding to my Sepia Saturday challenge, as well as Tom's Signs2

Tampa Bay Buccaneers is the local football team

Ah ha, I could read this expiration date, 03-08. Thus this was taken between March 07, and August 2007 when I moved to North Carolina.

wish I had that bumper sticker!

That is all, folks.

And it's suddenly late spring

 Some more blossoms around my apartment. Happy EARTH DAY!

As of Thursday, April 16 we still had some azaleas blooming.

I climbed down two flights of stairs to capture a few photos of the lilies of the valley.

Behind the big maple tree is where my balcony sits, over the entrance to the downstairs apartment. 

White azaleas are past their prime.

The lilies are as well. But what a huge patch of them! This is the biggest I've seen it.

Another native flame azalea, also butchered by the eager landscape crew in trying to make everything look tidy.

Quilt by Sandra Mollon.

Sharing with Tom's Tuesday Treasures