we interrupt this natural history blog for a baby shower

Exciting news – this blog is one of those featured on “Berry Go Round”, a “a blog carnival devoted to highlighting recent posts about any aspect of plant life from the blogosphere.”

Step-by-step spring from Sarah at Musings from Dave whose written musings... on the gradual onset of the green season are as charming as her photographic accompaniment. Second installment here. And earlier fabulous time-lapse close-ups all help us see spring as it happens!

Every month, a different blogger hosts it – this month’s is here, at Foothills Fancies. Pretty cool, huh?

And now for a post with hardly any nature photography…

I don’t know how long distance truckers do it. All I did was drive to New Haven and back – just under 300 miles round trip – and I’m cooked. I went down for my cousin’s baby shower, an event put together by her sister. They each got married the same year, and then got pregnant within a few months of each other. Such fun! I have two other cousins who are almost exactly a year younger than I am, and within three weeks of each other’s birthdays. Makes for fun playtime when you’re little, at least if you’re lucky enough to spend time with your extended family. Hopefully, these two baby boys will have many adventures together.

Emily (16 weeks preggers) and Rebecca (due at the end of this month). I caught ‘em when they weren’t expecting it.

yours truly, Em, Rebecca

Emily made all this fabulous food – she’s a vegetarian chef and blogger, you can check her out over at Daily Garnish – and then, thank heavens, we had a very sedate present-opening experience with none of the horrifying baby shower games I’ve heard of. Rebecca looks about as calm and serene as a mother-to-be as I think it’s possible to look.

Naturally, I went out into the back yard to photograph possibly the longest catkins I’ve ever seen. Their lilacs already have long sprays of still-tightly-closed flowers. I don’t think I’ve seen any on ours. Uh oh.

Tomorrow: that long run I’ve been threatening you with, and the usual flower/shrub/tree bud update. Also, I believe every muscle in my body is sore from the wreckage of sapling destruction yesterday.