Royal Oak Visit

I drove to Royal Oak this morning in order to buy food from Holiday Market for a 49th birthday celebration this weekend. I-696 is still a hot mess years after they started "fixing" it but the rest of the drive was actually pleasant even though I drove in rush hour traffic. Not bad at all.

I've seen more fishing activity this spring than previous years. David? Salmon? Lake Trout? AUCE Perch?

The house from the North-Woods.

Some perennials living in the North-Woods.

Daphne

Epimediums in bud

Daffodils - from one bulb years ago

Magnolia with Dogs

One of the the things that I love about perennials is that if they are well sited, they increase in size and health every year. Of course many of them have a flowering period that may last only several days to a few weeks and then they're finished for another year. Well planned perennial gardens have rotating periods where something is always in bloom, there is always something to look forward to. And they don't have to be planted every year like annuals do. With luck, after a few years, they can be divided and spread around the yard.

Game of Thrones Rock with Robin

Hummingbird - Finally Back Home

Hummingbird

Hummingbird

Flickers, unlike most woodpeckers, migrate south in the fall and return in the spring probably because they feed primarily on ants and ants hibernate and are out of harm's way under snow and the frozen ground. A few years ago I lost a birch bark tree in a storm. I never remove the remaining stub when a tree is topped because I know that some bird - chickadee, nuthatch. brown creeper, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, red-headed woodpecker, flicker, etc. may eventually, as the wood softens with age, excavate a nesting site. Patience rewarded. In the first shot you can barely make out the well camouflaged flicker.

This site is very close to the house but outside the fenced area in my North-Woods and on the north-east edge of my bluff. I am going to love watching them nest - - - - from the comfort of my home.