Finally, Sun! And flowers.

After over a week of relentless rain rain rain (and chill) we finally have some sun, and it looks like it's here to stay for a while.  

In the world of trees... some tiny leafies are starting to peak out -- especially on crabapples (pictured here) and lilacs.  

Also, red maples are flowering so brightly red, they're earning their name this week!

And some early magnolias have started flowering, but mostly they're just quite swollen.

In the prairie, not much happens this early, but prairie smoke is in that "almost" stage:

In the world of bulbs, quite a few daffodils are blooming, but most are still not there yet.

I also noticed some early hyacinths flowering. Oh, and periwinkles, which are not bulbs but we'll group them here as cultivated non-native flowers.

This violet photo is actually from last week -- on 3/31 I noticed them flowering, but I was too lazy to do a post for just that.


Many, many interesting ducks migrating through this time of year.  I don't carry binoculars or a bird book or a good working memory of duck ID, so... you'll just have to trust me that they're interesting.

Weather Moves Back, Spring Moves Forward

Yesterday's emergence: midges, all over the school walls.  Thanks to Chris for the ID.  

I promised we'd get crabapple blossoms today, and here they are!  Though these are early adopters, most are still bursting at the seems, but closed.  Maybe they're waiting for the mercury to top 50. 

And look!  Golden Alexander is blooming.  Color in the prairies!

State of the World

I've been failing in the end game for the last few days... I've been taking pictures and notes, but haven't managed to dedicate the computer time to getting blog entries actually published.  So here's the state of the world right now.  

The state of the world is lovely.  Warm and sunny and only lightly breezy.  This is the third day of perfect weather (and Friday was only a slight bit cooler) and I love it.  I can run and run and never think about the weather.  I can work in the garden -- and did I ever this weekend.  It's just... just... I can't even express.  Marvelous spring weather for the past few days. Here's just a bit of what I've been seeing...

• The first tick was found (not my me) on 4/14.  YEA!  Now we get to feel false (and real) creepy crawlies whenever we're out in the prairie or woods for the next 2 months!
• Pasqueflowers also reached their peak bloom on or around 4/14, when I took this photo. 

• Dandelions have been blooming for a little over a week now, but I didn't photograph one until Friday. 

• Crabapples leafed out -- this picture is from Friday, and by today they're even greener and leafier.  With them, the honeysuckles, the boxelder, and the lilacs (photo from today) leafing out, not to mention other shrubs like spirea, my blackcurrants... the understory has a definite green tinge to it. 

 

• The Norway maples are flowering -- their green-ish flowers fool people into thinking they've leafed out, but it's flowers first.  Red maples are also flowering (have been for a while, actually).  Sugar maples haven't started yet.  

• While we're on the subject of tree flowers, cherries have just started, and magnolias... they're in full and fragrant bloom, a full spectrum from whites and pinks to purples.  Really just a lovely treat. 

 

• Less pretty, but cottonwoods are catkining and actually the catkins are already falling like rain when you stand under the trees.  Soon they'll be sending off seeds like snow! 

• Celandine poppies started flowering this weekend...

• In the world of bulbs... daffodils are at or just past peak bloom.  Tulips are just starting, only a few varieties open.  Hyacinths are in full bloom, too. 

• In the insect world, I started seeing white butterflies all over this weekend.  Also ants, and those big fuzzy bumble bees.  And...
• I saw my first green darner!  It's dragonfly season!
• In the bird world, so much, and I'm not a good birder.  Wood ducks and yellow-rumped warblers.  Bob o'links.  Killdeer.  Buffleheads.  So much more...

OK, I think that'll be it for now... if that's not enough to process!

Happy Earth Week! (One day is not enough!)

Berry Bliss and Apple Elation

With leaves down, berries have become much more noticeable ornamentation.  The sumac berries stand out, red, atop their naked shrubs.  The choke berries crown the branches of the shrubs in large clusters.  Today I was particularly struck by the crab apples adorning trees... they come in deep red, yellow/green, and some, like the one I enlarged and actually colored, are yellow-orange with red tinges.  The apples are in all states of decay.  Some are still plump and round, while others are shriveled like raisins, and many are in between.  (Note: after this sketching experience, I will not be drawing raisins any time soon.)

Shrubs are Singing...

All over, trees and shrubs are flowering... 

Crab apples, whose pink buds turn to white as soon as they flower.

Lilacs, which should be in full bloom just in time for mother's day!

Judd's Viburnum

Leaf-Outs

Crabapple

Lilac

Chokeberry

Forsythia 

We're Blooming and Leafing

There is a lot going on right now.  And a lot of it is going on early.  Most people I talk to make some comment about how the weather is freaking them out.  My response is something along the lines of, it may be freaky, but we can't do anything about it, so let's enjoy it... because if you ignore the fact that its mid-March, it's perfect weather... not too hot for an early morning run, warm enough to read outside all afternoon, but not so warm that you get uncomfortable weeding, and then cool enough in the night time for sleeping under the covers with open windows.  

BUT... if you want to add more data to the freak-out part of it... I could include photos of about a hundred things, but no one would bother to scroll through them.  Here are some highlights. 

Violet

 Violets flowered today, which have previously been noted in early April...

Bloodroot

The bloodroot started to open... over a month earlier than last year (April 21 they looked like this), and a couple of weeks before 2010 bloom-time.

Hepatica

Hepatica isn't quite open but it's close, I mean, this flower will be open tomorrow.  Again, this is exactly how they looked on April 21 last year.  Same with the trillium and mayapples (Aprilapples, this year?), below.

Trillium

Mayapples poke through the soil.

Ginger leaves emerging from the earth.

Other things to report...

• A lot of surprising leaf-outs, including...
• Crab apples leafing out (3/16)
• Willows catkining and leafing out (3/17)
• Wasps extremely active (3/18)
• Currants leafing out (3/17) 
• Maple-leaf viburnum leafing out (3/18)
• And today, there were tons of millipedes undulating their way across the trail.  I was trying to avoid them, but it became too difficult, and eventually, I had to just decide that some myriapods are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• Spice bushes flowering (since last week, but I liked this photo:) 

I realize I have been remiss about writing lately, in a time of year when the world seems to change every day. I can make excuses... I have been plagues by minor injuries and illnesses, as has my car. I have been on school trips. I have been extremely busy, what with this being such an important time of year for gardening, plus all of the above.

But the truth? I just haven't felt that much like writing, or taking pictures. When it becomes a chore...

And the world really is changing. I look out my window and see the first lilacs blooming. Just about everything is leafed out... even the oaks and the ashes have leaves at this point. Crabapples and redbuds are blooming. And it is still really cold. (Last week, we had a few days of pre-summer. In fact, it hit 90 in Chicago and the upper 80s where I was in Wisconsin. But that was just a tease, and then we had a weekend that didn't top 50 for even a single minute, and was wet to boot.) At least it's sunny today.

Here's a phenological mystery for you all...

I know this isn't a lovely picture, but that's not the point. The point is that I took it this morning. And it's a crabapple. Which flowered in the spring, and fruited, and is still bearing its fruit. And now, a few of its limbs have decided to flower again, for some reason unknown to me. I don't know what's going on, and Google didn't help me figure it out... see? A mystery.

Apple

Today's Drawing is a bunch of flowers from a crab apple tree. Note how similar these blooms are to the strawberry flowers drawn in the last post. Strawberries and apples are just two of the many food plants that belong to the same surprising family... the rose family! And while apples, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, almonds, etc. may not seem to have that much in common with a rose at first glance (much less each other), the flowers and leaves give them away.

All have five-petaled (and five-sepaled) flowers... well, except for cultivated roses. Those have been bred to have many more petals, probably in multiples of five, but wild roses have five. The five petals frame a cluster of many stamen, also in multiples of 5. These crab apples seem to have about 25, though I'm not taking the time to count very accurately. The leaves also have similarities. For example, the leaves tend to be toothed, but the teeth don't start until about half-way up the edge of the leaf, so that near the base they are smooth-edged. This is most evident on the strawberry, which has large teeth. But you can see it on the crab apple, too, if you look closely. The teeth are so small that most people never notice, but it's true! Finally, the leaf and flower stems have stipules, which are little tendril-y things that come out at the base of their stems. (These are so small, they show up in my drawings only as a messy little line.)

So there's your botany lesson for the day!

More Fall Fun

We went apple picking today. It is quite near to the end of the season; in fact, several orchards were already closed for the year. I'm sure the selection of apples isn't what it was 3 weeks ago... but them neither were the crowds! And the weather was fine when the sun was out, which I can not say for the poor trick-or-treaters yesterday. Anyhow, we went to 3 orchards that were open, and got what I will describe as a counter-full of apples and 2 gallons of cider. The apples were mostly Jonagold, blushing golden, empire, winesap, with a few honey crisps and galas, and a single macintosh. I have already made 2 recipes of applesauce and 1 recipe of apple butter, and there's still a large number of apples on the counter. I don't even know what you do with apple butter (Chanukah gifts?). Sometimes I let these things get out of control.

Naked Thursday!

Some trees are getting nekkid. Mostly ashes, lindens, crab apples, some oaks (but others still have green leaves...) The bare trees must be feeling cold and wet. It's been raining for about 8 hours and doesn't seem like it's going to stop any time soon.

My driveway and front yard are covered in ash leaves...

More Bird Nerdery

OK, seriously, people... I am going to sprout binoculars and a field guide soon.  I have seen my third bird-nerdy bird in as many days.  This morning on the way to school, way up in the trees -- a flash of red that was distinctly non-cardinal.  No pointy head.  Black wings.  Have you guessed yet?

That's right.  A scarlet tanager, I'm fairly certain.  They summer here and winter South or Central America, so a pretty cool sighting for me.

And speaking of flashes of red... the first columbines have opened.  (My camera thought it was dark enough to need a flash.  It is raining this morning, but it's a bright rainy day, and I'm not sure I agreed with the camera... but no time to argue this morning.)  

Also, crab apples are starting to drop their petals, like warm snow falling around the trees. 

A+ Day

Alders are leafing out. (Their flowers are now dried and spent).

Apples, crab are leafing out.

The green is coming!