It's been a while, hasn't it. It's been a very soggy May, so when I found myself home early enough from work with some scant sun this afternoon I had to get out there...soak up some spring....why yes, I will happily settle for a dandelion!

The willow down by the culvert is in full-bore explosion. Here's one just starting to open up:

The Mighty Lumix (the camera I had with me today) is who chose to focus on the yellow bits. The Nikon lets me choose where to focus, but I left it at home. Lumix it is, then. The cool thing about the Lumix is, it's small enough for me to use it to get shots I can't actually get to with my own eyes - such as the underside of mushrooms. I'll only know what was there, once I transfer the pictures to my laptop. 

This explains the happy discovery of an ant on a somewhat older willow bud: Hello!

The internet informs me that these are both the staminate (meaning male) flowers of a willow. Excellent. Onwards.

Boy, am I rusty: I failed to confirm species. Beech, I believe. So fuzzy! Who knew? (Well, I did, but it still makes me grin to see it every year.)

shroom condos. See, the Mighty Lumix can do these things for me.

And now, for the pièce de resistance:

THE FIRST JACK I'VE SEEN THIS YEAR!