Decided to just keep it simple again for today. Just some spring sightings from this week.
ONE: Volunteer Grape Hyacinths
These tiny grape hyacinths sprang up in an essentially a very random part of the backyard. A few do every year it seems. I don’t think I planted them. Maybe some in the past but definitely not in the middle of the yard. Still just another happy spring sighting.
TWO: Stinky Trees
I’m not denying they are pretty but oh, how they stink! Bradford pears also known as Callery Pear trees. It’s the time of year they bloom with pretty white flowers. The catch? The wind blows right and they smell like sewage to me. One of my preschool friends who was at the time showing me a little bud she’d swiped off a similar tree (it didn’t stink so it was either a dogwood or cottonwood or ?) said: They smell like fish!
They’re non-native and invasive around here. And yet, I still saw them for sale at a local nursery last year. Why? And I also wonder, did not anyone notice as they planted these trees everywhere years ago, how stinky they were when blooming? The photo above is of the tree in the yard across the street. As I said, pretty but also stinky.
Three: Nesting Time
This is a crow’s nest, best I could get for now with the zoom and the lighting the day I was taking photos. You can sort of see the crow in the nest.
I spent quite a bit of time one late afternoon simply watching the nest. This is actually the exact same spot the crows built their nest last year so it must be a good one. They’ve been busy lately, at night, fussing at the owls and in the day, chasing away the local Cooper’s hawk who sometimes hangs around the bird feeders.
Also, nest building somewhere in the yard are starlings. 
They are never going to be my favorite birds but after our yellow jacket invasion last year I’ve softened toward these nuisance birds a bit. It turns out they eat the pesky wasps (I don’t mind the paper wasps and a few others as I know they do good things). That said, I still don’t like that they are quite messy in large numbers so hopefully, we won’t see droves of them around here.
FOUR: A Spring Thunderstorm
One day during the course of the week, Tuesday or Wednesday perhaps, we had slight severe weather predictions. I think we got a small bit of rain, other areas in town more. One thing I’d forgotten was the wonderful smell of the coming rain. The earth just smells different in the spring does it not? And we have more much needed rain predicted for Monday. I do hope we see it, not necessarily severe weather or a thunderstorm but the simply the rain.
Five: Tulips!
Finally, these lovely flowers completely surprised me this morning.
I thought my tulips were a few weeks away from blooming. Apparently, not. Such a lovely surprise to see out the front door this morning. More photos later, the neighbor was outside and I was not quite invested in enough cups of coffee for conversation. Also, apparently, yellow was my color of choice for fall bulbs! Love seeing the blooms after forgetting what colors/flowers I’d even planted there.
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Day 95/365
Your tulips are gorgeous. So are daffodils.
I love the smell of spring rain, too.
Thank you. I see more tulips blooming each day. Really do need to get some better pictures soon.
Such a lovely post, my friend. Daffodils are my favorite. My mom had a daffodil kitchen when I was little. : )
Oh, I can only imagine how cheerful a daffodil kitchen must have been, love that idea!
That’s a real shame about the stinky trees, they do look nice though. We had Sycamore trees at our other house, they were horrendous. From sticky sap all over the car, then little fluffy flowers that stuck to the car… It looked like a teddy bear. The leaves were everywhere after the seeds like helicopters which kids loved. There was a preservation order on 2 of them, the other 1 split into 2 which we had cut down. A dreadful weed, living long after the guy who slapped a preservation order on.
Nice to see the starlings, their population has dropped considerably. Lovely photos Jean. Take care, Cathy x
The trees are pretty but of course, we have other native trees that are just as pretty and not as stinky. Ha, we have maple trees with those helicopter seeds here. Oh, the fun we had with those when I was a kid. Had no idea starling population had dropped. Hope you are having a great Easter weekend!
Your tulips! They are so nice.
Thank you! More seem to be blooming each day. And it seems I only planted yellow tulips this year.