Blank piece of “paper” . . . all mine to do something with . . . what would the girlfriends like today? Well, one thing for sure, we have to start with Birdsong; and let’s go outside!
It’s getting almost ridiculous around Martha’s Vineyard this year, we’re having the most beautiful spring; every day the sun is shining and all the neighborhoods are in bloom. Up and down the narrow streets, huge old trees in cottage gardens are dripping in the softest Easter-egg colors of pink, yellow, and white; looking like the aisles of a flowery wedding.
And it’s not just us who are celebrating . . . this is the view from our upstairs bathroom window and that’s the happily married squirrel couple that lives in the old Linden tree.
Had to zoom in to show you how pretty these two are; we really have a bird’s eye view here . . . the ledge of this window is one of Jack’s favorite hangouts. These squirrels play like crazy; round and round that tree they run; up and down. I would love to get a look inside that nest!! I always wonder if they have my bird-feeder hanging hook that just up and disappeared a couple of years ago.
We have not been home this time of year for years . . . for some reason it seems like we’ve chosen March and April to go out to California — I’d never even seen the weeping cherry we planted a few years ago next to the picket fence garden (in the first picture) in bloom! So I’m really enjoying this! I almost forgot how beautiful it is. There are wild violets in the lawn! Makes me remember the quote by John Greenleaf Whittier:
The sunshine seemed to bless, the air was a caress. ♥
A caress.
Right down the middle of our backyard this deer sashayed, perfectly at home. The nerve of some people’s children! So smart, she looks both ways before she crosses the street. Where’s she going? I don’t know.
This picture makes me think of the blooming lane in the movie Anne of Green Gables, which really was a big inspiration to me when it came to planting things here. It’s so amazing to look at something like that and think, “Anne of Green Gables doesn’t own blooming trees, I can have them too!”
And then there’s the forsythia that spatters sunshine yellow all over our neighborhood. In the back of this photo, near the house, are three tall Linden trees in a row; still no leaves. The squirrel family lives in the middle one.
We won’t be barbecuing anytime soon!
This is the place to take your blanket, your cardigan, your tea, and your book when a (caressing) breeze begins to blow up from the harbor and the petals start to fall.
Here’s the new dogwood we planted last year. It’s full of buds now, but not in bloom yet; the lilacs aren’t out here yet either — we have so much to look forward to!!!
Outside our kitchen window we have three bird feeders. Or should I say, squirrel feeders! This is Harold. His tail is a little thin compared to the others, that’s how we know him, and this is how he and his relatives entertain us . . . we don’t make it easy for them, but nothing really stops them. We sort of like it anyway . . . it sends Jack to the moon!
When we make grilled-cheese sandwiches, this is what we get to watch while waiting for the cheese to melt. I do wonder how this can be comfortable? But Harold seems happy.
See the bird on the far right? He’s skipping over to the next feeder, he’s in mid air. You know what I love about this? Anyone can have it. All this beauty is waiting at the nursery, and year after year, it comes back as a benediction.
And then there is this. Only about three more weeks until we go to England! So much to do! I think about what all I want to show you over there. Hillsides of wildflowers and meadows of baby lambs; the grocery store, and the knitting store, and the old bookstores, and the houses! I will bring the spy cam, and maybe get some pictures of English people’s cute shoes! Table settings and teapots and desserts and linens in tea rooms, and old old OLD churches where people are buried in the floor; dovecotes, and gardens with roses tumbling over ancient stone walls, foxgloves crowding cottage doorways. I can’t wait! Hope you’re all packed and ready to go. The clock’s ticking! ♥