Winter, Spring, Winter

It's that time of the year again when the temperatures do their wild fluctuations!  For the past several days, we've had temps in the high 70's to low 80's - pure heaven after the cold we've had.  But we had a front move through yesterday that has brought back the cooler temps.  It's not all that cold but still nearly 30 degrees cooler than what it has been.

The daffodils and forsythia are blooming and I spotted a crocus nearly open yesterday.  These plants seem able to take the weather see-saw although a hard freeze would probably ruin the blooms.

Little teasers of spring right now then back to winter.

Another sign of the season is that there are a lot of skunks out and many are being hit on the highways.  Since we're in the country, many are hit on the road on which we live.  That makes for such a delightful perfume for several days!

But, the skunks and the early flowers signal that spring really isn't that far away.  Here's hoping it's early this year!

Spring! Lovely Spring!

After such an abnormally nasty winter, it's been a delight to spend time outside these past few days.  The temps have been in the high 60's and it even got up to 80 degrees one day!  More and more flowers are coming into bloom and the wildlife is on the move again.

Here are some of the turkeys we've been seeing on a regular basis recently.  I don't know what it is in that back hayfield that's keeping them coming back, but they're there off and on all day and don't even seem to mind when I take their picture.  Before, they would scurry back into the woods but they're a bit braver now.  Yesterday evening they were all out there along with a small herd of deer and it reminded me of a drive-through zoo with several species intermingling.

While we haven't actually seen a live skunk yet this year, there's ample evidence that they're still around!  They're on the move also and many times get stuck on one of our country roads in the path of an on-coming car or truck. While I have a hard time with any animal getting killed, I don't want skunks around our place either!

Anyway, I may not do so well at keeping up my blog for a while.  And I've been too restless to do much art - the great outdoors has such a siren call that I've been grabbing my camera and spending more time with it than either art supplies or computers!

Maybe it's time to try a little plein air painting!  I'll keep you posted!