Spring Wildflowers and Another Sign of Spring

There are so many reasons to go walking through the woods. One can always find such interesting things. At this time of year, I am particularly searching for wildflowers. When nothing else is green, these beautiful flowers blossom every spring.

Another important sign of spring! A little garter snake, basking in the sun.

I've always loved garter snakes. A garter snake was my very first gift from a boy. We were ten and on a school field trip. My friend found a little green garter snake. He gave it to me. We decided the best place to keep him from the eyes of the teacher would be in my lunch box. So we stuffed some grass and the snake into my lunchbox.

----------When I got home from school that afternoon, I was excitedly telling my mother about the field trip. Before I got to the best part, she opened my lunch box to clean it. She screamed and dropped the box on the floor, spilling out the grass and the snake. My mother insisted I take the snake (whom I had already named Jake) outside and set it free.

----------The lunch box smelled terrible! Apparently Jake did not like the enclosure and being tossed around as I carried the box. He had secreted his famous foul smell. That was the end of my favorite lunch box.

----------Perhaps if I had introduced Jake under better circumstances, my mother might have let me keep him as a pet. But I doubt it. She was not fond of snakes or lizards and certainly didn't want them in the house. I made certain that my own children had snakes, lizards, salamanders, polywogs, and turtles as pets. We kept them for observation and then released them. Afterwards, the children were certain they could identify the very reptile or amphibian they had released when we came upon them in the wild.

Ringing Clear and True

Hark! The sound of Tar Heel voices
Ringing clear and true.
Singing Carolina's praises...

Hail to the brightest star of all

Clear its radiance shine.

Carolina, priceless gem

Receive all praises thine.

I'm a Tar Heel born, I'm a Tar Heel bred and when I die I'll be a Tar Heel dead.
So it's Rah! Rah! Carolina-lina, Rah! Rah! Carolina-lina, Rah! Rah! Carolina...

RAH! RAH! RAH!

GO TAR HEELS!

A Hike to Moore's Cove Falls

After several days of welcome rain the sun came out and gave us a marvelous spring day. A perfect opportunity for hiking to another waterfall. We decided upon Moore's Cove Falls, a relatively easy hike in Pisgah National Forest. Moores Cove is a recessed rock cliff and the water free falls with a drop of fifty feet. A shallow cave behind the falls allows people to walk behind the falls.

The falls are fed by a small creek and the flow is variable. In very dry spells, the flow is a mere trickle. Recent rains provided a very good flow.

The recessed area continues in the rocks to the right of the falls.

The water at the top of the falls glistens in the sun.

The trail to Moore's Cove follows the creek that created the falls above.

Huge rocks are found throughout the forest. This one is totally covered in moss and has a small bush growing from the top.

Bushes grow in the limited soil on top of this outcropping.

I love this formation. At the base is a cave large enough for several people.

The weekend weather was perfect for being outdoors after several days of rain. Today, like most of the country, we are expecting a major change with a cold front threatening to bring a hard freeze. We have our fingers crossed that the sub-freezing temperatures are not sufficiently low and sustained to damage the fruit trees. And it seems the TarHeels will be having SNOW for their game tonight! Hasn't this been a wonderful tournament? I can't wait for the game which promises to be a great one regardless of the outcome. Of course, I will sleep better if the 'Heels win.

I've Got Another Crossbill

Little more than a week ago, I had never seen a Red Crossbill. Since his first appearance on March 27, the lovely red bird has been a frequent visitor at our feeders. We are thrilled with this unusual sight.

So you can just imagine my surprise when I looked out and saw ANOTHER Red Crossbill! This one is a young male who is moulting, his feathers changing from the greenish color of the female to the bright red of the adult male.

His back is like a beautiful painting.

The adult male and the young one share a drink of water.

The eat together at the feeder. The two of them come to the feeder together quite frequently, although both come individually as well.

The adult sits watching from the tree. I wonder if he thinks the young male is his son? Perhaps he is, but we will never know.

I watch the trees and feeders for a female. Now wouldn't that be a sight to behold?

Fridays are Golden

We have had rain all week. Blessed, wonderful, gentle rain. We are still behind for 2009, but this rain is especially welcome.

The Golden Girls do not care for rain. I'm not certain why since they loved the rain in Wisconsin. While they don't care much for being out in the rain, Lucy loves watching the rain from inside the house.

She especially loves to watch the bird activity.

Or anything else she perceives to be moving on the deck. Even the raindrops themselves.

My husband took off their leashes when they came in from a brief walk. They flew down the driveway in the rain.

They stopped for a confrontation. They do this all the time. There's usually no clue as to how it starts or why it ends. It just is.

The fracus continued on both sides of the driveway. They seemed to be having quite a fun time.

This is how the girls spend most of their rainy days. As usual, Lucy plops on Ellie and uses her for a soft comfy pillow.

I hope your weather is good on this first Friday of April. This is a special week for many, filled with great meaning. Christians among us will observe the Passion of our Lord on Palm Sunday to begin Holy Week of Easter. For the Jewish among us, Passover begins on Wednesday at sundown. Whatever your religious beliefs (or lack of them) enjoy this changing of the seasons. Go outside, even in the rain, and find evidence that spring is truly on its way.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. Touch base with neglected friends and family. And touch base with yourself as well by taking some time all to yourself.

No Foolin'

I have never been fond of practical jokes and pranks. They always seemed designed to make someone feel uncomfortable. It's been my opinion that April Fool's Day jokes are for children only. Once you are too old to trick-or-treat, you're too old to play April Fool's jokes.

There are some exceptions. Some organizations have played April Fool jokes on the public with harmless and hilarious results. Here are my favorites:


The Taco Liberty Bell:

The 1990s brought the days of corporate sponsorship of stadiums and other venues. In 1996 the Taco Bell Corporation sent out press releases and advertisements that they had purchased the Liberty Bell and would rename it the "Taco Liberty Bell." They would allow the bell to remain on display in Philadelphia half the time and would keep it at corporate headquarters the other half. Furious Americans began calling the park where the Liberty Bell is kept, as well as their Senators and Congressmen. Taco Bell immediately revealed that it was a practical joke.

The news even made it to the Presidential press conference that afternoon. Mike McCurry, then White House Press Secretary had a great one-liner for the press. He said that Ford Motors had purchased the Lincoln Memorial and it would be re-named the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.




Burger King played a great joke in 1998. The company took out a full page ad in USA Today. The ad described a new product, "The Left Handed Whopper" designed for left-handed people. The whopper was made by rotating all the ingredients 180 degrees for left-handed customers. Burger King announced the next day the advertisement was a hoax. But for several days, people came in requesting the Left-Handed Whopper. Others requested the old "Right-handed Whopper."

National Public Radio (NPR) is not above a good joke. In 2004, All Things Considered informed us the the US Postal Service was beginning a "portable zip code" policy. Since the FCC had recently allowed customers to keep their telephone numbers when they moved, the post office would allow customers to keep their old zip code numbers. The program stated that the portable zip codes would put Americans in the demographic, not just geographic landscape.

A scientific newsletter, New Mexicans for Science and Reason, published an article in the April edition (1998) that the great state of Alabama was changing the value of Pi. According to the article, the state legislature had returned the definition to the "biblical" value of 3.0 rather than 3.14159. The real purpose of the article was to parody the legislature for its position on the teaching of evolution. News of the article spread quickly and the Alabama legislature was inundated with phone calls.

It was in 1957 that the BBC News reported a bumper crop of spaghetti. According to the spot on the news show, Panorama, the maligned spaghetti weevil had been almost eliminated. The story was accompanied by pictures of peasants pulling huge strands of spaghetti off the heavily laden trees. Surprisingly, BBC was flooded with calls from people wanting to plant their own spaghetti trees! They finally developed a reply, "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."

Especially today, don't believe everything you hear.

Cardinals and Computers

We have found that Cardinals tend to be a bit aggressive at the bird feeders. This female Cardinal seems the exception. She doesn't seem to mind the Tufted Titmouse sharing the feeders. (Perhaps she doesn't even see him. That's another great feature of this feeder.)




A chickadee comes along and she seems all right with that as well.

But truth be told, I think she is most happy when she has total control of the feeder. She looked at me as if to say, "I told you I would share. Now can I eat in peace?"

Wednesday brings us April Fool's Day. Lots of people love to play pranks, and some of the worst are almost certain to be computer viruses and worms.

----------Before midnight tomorrow night, make certain your computer is protected. A firewall does no good if it is not turn on.

----------If you do not automatically update your virus protection and spyware, go to their respective Websites and install the latest updates.

----------If you use Microsoft Operating System and Windows or Vista, make certain you have downloaded and installed the most recent updates.

----------Run your virus protection and spyware detection programs late Tuesday and make certain they are on your start up to run when you turn on your computer Wednesday morning.

----------In spite of your careful measures, you may still get infected. One method that is gaining in popularity and notoriety is through Face Book. The offenders send worms after hacking into Face Book pages. The worm is sent to all "friends" who open the message and have their computers infected. The worm tracks passwords and grabs credit card numbers. It goes without saying that you need to check your accounts regularly.

Hopefully the day will pass with only the simplest of April Fool jokes played on you.

BTW: your shoe's untied.