Another Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Mother Nature just keeps on giving this spring.  I honestly don't remember a spring in North Idaho prettier than this one.  

Part of that confident assessment most likely has to do with my being retired.  I'm sure that during all those years of teaching, beauty abounded in the spring but not time. 

Time was filled up seemingly every waking second with "to do's," which meant that when it wasn't, I was probably trying to sleep, and taking time to smell the roses was hardly an option. 

Well, since retiring, I have made every effort to make up for that void and am enjoying every moment of awe that comes with blossoms and sounds and just plain beauty aplenty. 

Last night, while Bill was casting flies on his favorite stream south of town, I drove to the Oden Wildlife Management Area, just past the bridge over a slough that flows past the Raynold Davis farm. 

For anyone who loves lupine and LOTS of them, the Sunnyside Road complex could be temporarily renamed Lupine Lane.  I've never seen such a mass of gorgeous purple splotches amidst rich green grass. 

It's a sight to behold, especially in the early evening when the sun, which had created a gorgeous morning scene in our pasture, was still casting brilliant rays while slowly dipping behind the Selkirks. 

While walking through the lush wildlife area which I had all to myself and which includes some Lake Pend Oreille shoreline, I discovered an unfamiliar wildflower.  It's the last one in this collection of photos.  

If anyone knows its name, please leave a comment.  So elegant and exquisite!

My brief walk topped off a day of lawn mowing at the Lovestead where the columbine are putting on quite a show as are numerous flowering bushes around the yard.  

These days have been nothing short of exhilarating, and today, forecast as sunny and seventy,  promises even more as I continue the process of transplanting stuff into the garden and putting some more seeds in the dirt.

I see one pumpkin plant has popped out of its potting soil in the greenhouse, so it may make the move to the manure pile, where this year I'm gonna launch an all-out assault against pumpkin pilfering deer. 

Life is definitely good AND beautiful.  

Happy Wednesday.