Green, Green - It's GREEN They Say!

Wow! Can up believe it? There is actually something GREEN growing in our yard! I looked out the window Saturday morning and saw these brave little chives rising up out of the pine needles in the old pot under the spruce tree! I was delighted!

You can really see a difference outside now - the paths are getting wider every day and we don't get wet feet going out to get the mail any more. I can put the better rug back in the front hall because we don't need to wipe our feet so much!

We took a walk up the road just listening to the birds. They are back! We have had a robin thinking of building a nest in the upstairs window. He wakes up up pecking at the glass in the morning. I wonder if the robins think the nest in the birch tree that has been wearing a snow hat the last few months is just too weather worn. It is nice to see them again, the chickadees, too. They have been swooping around the yard all week. There will be a lot of branches and leaves to rake up out there. Still a bit wet out on the 'lawn' to do much in the way of yard work. Think I'll let it dry out a bit more.

Look what else we found! More shoots! These are day lilies but we found some iris breaking through the leaves and pine needles, too! They aren't too green yet - give them a few more sunny days.

One of the best things about the walk was hearing the water running under the snow along both sides of the road. You really know that spring is here when you hear that sound. The sun was pouring through the trees dappling the snow and the open patches of ground. There were green things poking up here and there and rushing water making little waterfalls and creating tunnels under the ice. The mosses on the trees and rocks looked so GREEN! The woods were alive with bird song.

Next thing we will be looking for out there are the lady slippers. Just up the road we have a whole lot of the pink ones on both sides of the stone wall, but there are some lovely yellow ones not too far away along a back road on the end of the mountain. Last year the deer ate the tops of the plants so there were not as many flowers. We'll have to wait and see what lies under the snow for this year. It is nice to take a drive up through Evans Notch to look for more wildflowers. There are trilliums in abundance and clintonia, viburnum, rhodora and wood anenome. Sometimes we find Jack-in-the-pulpits, too.

Last week I took a photo of the hard buds forming on the maple tree out back of the house. One the walk back home we found maple buds just bursting to open up. They are a lovely red, not green at all - but they say SPRING just the same!

Friday night I went with some friends to see the Figures of Speech puppets. They did two shows, both very different. The first was a bittersweet Japanese tale using Bunraku puppets. The puppeteers wore black clothing and moved the heads, hands and legs of the puppets, each about three feet tall, in a most natural manner to tell the story. Next came a Chinese tale done with furry rat handpuppets and more contemporary speech patterns.

A friend who has collected interesting things from different parts of the world had a display of her Indonesian shadow puppets hanging on the wall panels. More of her collected puppets stood on tables below the panels. The workmanship and intricate details were wondeful to see.

Some were pretty scary looking characters but all were beautifully made. I would love to see a puppet show using them in their native cultural surroundings.