Sprung

 

Just trying to keep up! Spring, it seems, is popping up everywhere now, all at once.

In the Air

 

Spring is definitely in the air. All you had to do yesterday was to breathe deeply and to feel the pollen threatening to choke you. Still, the sun was out and the temperatures, for a change, were actually beginning to edge up into the category of what I would call true spring. Nice! Even the birds seemed to be loving it as they appeared almost everywhere, singing and chirping--Mockingbirds, Towhees, Bluebirds, Nuthatches, Chickadees, to name only a few of them that I saw.

Carolina Jessamine

 

Although I understand that much of this plant is toxic to animals, I've noticed how the House Wrens who have taken up residence in that storage building in the background like to use it for shelter during the day.

Kale

 

Perhaps the Duke basketball team could have used a little kale in their diet before last night's game against the Tennessee Vols, because they didn't seem to be playing at their usual high level. By contrast, I thought the Arkansas and Kansas players must have had too much, especially given the frenetic pace at which they played in the first half. What a game! And yet one more #1 seed bites the dust!

Lady Beetle

 

Uhm, who knew that entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or just lady beetles to avoid confusion with true bugs? Apparently, there's a difference! And here I've been calling them ladybugs for as long as I can remember.

Buds

 

I don't want to give people the wrong impression. It's not like Williamsburg is now suddenly bursting with color. It's not. But there are definite signs that spring is on its way, my favorite season of the year.

Winter Garden

 

Vine

Seems very late in the season for morning glory, although I don't think we've had a killing frost yet. So I suppose that explains why this vine still appears to be thriving even when nighttime temperatures have sometimes hovered just above the freezing mark.

Matoaka Trail

 

The Matoaka Trail runs through some 300 acres of woods now designated by the College of William & Mary as a nature preserve.

Calendula

 

Our Colonial Williamsburg gardeners have been working hard all fall to keep something of interest blooming in the garden. This time they've planted Calendula.

Summer Gardens II

 

Hemlock Trail II

 

The rest of the Hemlock Trail led me back along the shore of the Upper Hemlock Lake . . .

past some lovely mountain laurel . . .

and the remnants of a quintessentially New England-style rock fence.

Dill

 

Colonial Williamsburg garden

Fern

Colonial Williamsburg

Bottlebrush Buckeye

 

Garden

 

Norfolk Botanical Garden VIII

 

Clearweed

Pickerelweed

 

Climbing Vine

 

Wartburg Castle, Eisenach