you have eight minutes. go.

Pizza’s in the oven. I have eight minutes to goof off in the yard. Let’s see what I can cook up other than whole wheat crust pizza with homemade pesto, an extra fistful of chopped garlic, broccoli, and hot cherry peppers. Oh, and pepperoni and garlic for Sweetpea.

Lilac flowers, otherwise known as the space aliens in their spaceship pod, continue to ripen.

Good news! We have violets in the lawn. A crappy lawn is so much more interesting than one with actual grass.

Let’s get all porno and zoom in on the naughty bits. And yes, I’ve just guaranteed myself more hits on this blog by using the “p” word there. I’m such a whore. Whoa, more blog hits. I think this is a win for all of us today!

Everybody always looks at the daffodils. Few stop to wonder what they’re looking at themselves.

The reclaimed mystery woodland. That’s the GINORMOUS stump of a black cherry tree. I’m not talking the pretty-blossoms-delicate-little-ornamental kind of cherry. I’m talking a freakin’ CHERRY tree, the kind you try to turn into your kitchen cabinets if you have money to burn. No idea when it was taken down – before our watch.

squashed by the rain.

Who keeps EATING these poor things? (Trillium erectum)

I wish that I could tell you that I deliberately created these two differently-focused shots, but really, it was the camera having its own fun. This is that azalea-type shrub. 

Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) flower – the one I think looks carnivorous. Are those squiggly things in there worms? Probably not, huh.

I still have no clue what this is. It is one of many kinds of flowers growing at the base of a huge yellow birch on the edge of the lawn. The flowers have yet to open up.

Here’s where I go all magical and announce that I’ve found the discarded bridal veil of a faery princess.

White walnut, aka butternut (Juglans cinerea) aka monkey-face (see the little monkey-face in the leaf scar?) – anyhoo, it’s just starting to leaf out. This young tree is right in the shadow of the yellow birch and I probably “should” kill it off as part of my Mystery Woodland Maintenance Program, but I don’t have the heart to.

In other news, I heard the thrush (I forget if it’s a hermit, or a wood, thrush – I certainly have never seen it, so that’s not helpful) in the woods for the first time today. A song to bring a smile!