The swallows returned yesterday.
My first clue: little birds chattering up a storm and threatening to dive bomb me as they swept through the air.
It was obvious early on that they were looking for housing as their aviation routes took them to the bird-house areas.
A pair of chickadees soon entered the fray, quickly claiming the blue bird house in the garden.
I love watching the various mates as they take up residence and start their families.
It appeared that someone was busy at the brown bird house by the barn yesterday. I walked past and saw something sticking out of the bird hole.
Upon moving closer, I could see that it was a comb left by last year's bees.
Whoever was scouting out the homes must have done an interior inspection and decided to muck out before moving in.
Speaking of irritating things coming back, I asked Bill the other day which pests would come first: the dandelions or the mosquitoes.
A few yellow tops have appeared in the grass near the shop, and I could hear a few mosquitoes buzzing around my head last evening as I walked through the front yard.
So, the two annoyances are about even with their arrival, and I'm sure the masses of each species will show up soon.
Bill and I spent about five hours yesterday tending to a job which should take about 20 minutes. After all that time, the garden rototilling is still not finished.
And, that's after he took two trips to town---one to get some gas for the tiller; the other for a spark plug.
Changing the gas and the spark plug did not work.
In the midst of all this, he did get the tiller started----about 30 times, and I was sometimes allotted three or four minutes to till before the $#@#%^ piece of $%^@# died.
I'm sure the neighbors heard my disgust as each hope-filled session would come to an abrupt end.
We don't know what's wrong with the tiller. Tony worked with it the other day and was able to keep it going, but the only thing we can figure is that it's one of those tillers that refuses to work on Sunday.
I have been able to do the first level of breaking up dirt around all but about a ten-foot strip in the garden.
And, so we'll try to figure out the best approach to finish up the job today.
Frustrating.
While working on the tilling job on a relatively hot day, I'm sure several hundred thousand leaves burst open and stuff just kept growing around the place.
The discovery of clumps of hyacinths suddenly in bloom and little green things coming through the soil where I planted seeds is better than a good movie.
This morning the first plum blossoms opened. We'll be hoping that Mother Nature doesn't let all the blossoms open and then blast them with a freeze like she did last year.
Cantankerous tillers aside, these days are filled with hope and excitement and the ever-developing spring show brings on the eye candy.
Happy Monday and May Day.
No comments:
Post a Comment