After another nasty ice storm, that left us with frosticles all over our trees……

things have finally warmed up around here and some spectacular signs of life are starting to appear. Not without leaving us some damage however. Sadly the last cold blast had temps go down to 15 degrees, which killed off the flower buds on our mature Redbud trees. So now instead of lovely pinkish-red covered trees in our field, all we see are sticks and dead buds. Thankfully the leaf buds did not get killed off and they are quickly pushing through.

Below you can see the wilted greyish black flower buds and the fresh pink and green leaf buds on one of the Redbud branches.

Below is what it should be looking like! What a shame. This picture was from one of our newly planted Redbud trees that apparently bud out a little later in the spring than the old native ones. We planted three of these since the drought in 2011 killed off 2 of the older ones. I am just grateful that we at least get to see some redbud color – as small as it may be.These little trees were planted just last year and it will take a long time before they get to be noteworthy spring bloomers.

Having the larger trees on the property  not flower this spring is bad news for the honey and native bees, since Redbud trees provide important early season pollen and nectar that they depend on to feed their newly hatched larvae. Butterflies depend on them too.

Looking gloomily around my back field I was very happy to see that my Mexican Plum did not get damaged by the late season freeze. And what wonderful display it was!

Bees and butterflies covered the prolific blooms and the smell was just heavenly!

When I checked on the beehive I was happy to see a very busy scene. They were obviously taking full advantage of the blooming Mexican plum.

Here are my cute ladies causing a bit of a traffic jam coming and going from into the hive, loaded with much needed pollen. It’s almost like they need some traffic lanes to ease the backup. Maybe a traffic cop would do?

Seeing this kind of activity means that the queen and the colony probably survived the winter successfully. A neighbor recently told me that he had lost several hives over this unusually cold winter. He told me they had starved and frozen to death. So sad. I made sure that I kept my bees plenty fed with pollen patties that I placed into the hive twice over the last 4 months, and weekly doses of sugar water for them to enjoy when the temps were warm enough to roam out of their cluster. From the outside they look good, but only a thorough inspection inside the hive will let me know if there is a viable queen busily laying eggs. Hope all goes well. Their welcome buzzing is a sure sign of spring indeed!

We weren’t complete slackers this winter. A new blue fountain was setup in the back garden.This replaced a small in-ground water pond. I should say a water trough – that’s how small it was. It had become filled with sediment and rotting leaves, overgrown with an unruly marsh plant and positively heaving with mosquito larvae. The water had started to smell too. I eagerly dumped it out under some trees which probably appreciated the very compost rich water. Much to the distress of a small leopard frog however, who unbeknownst to me had taken up residence in that smelly, yet obviously food-rich home. I quickly caught him and delivered him to the big pond. He seemed to be a little shell-shocked at the size of this pond and hesitated to leave my hand as I gently settled him down on one of the pond rocks. The world had just gotten a whole lot bigger for him I guess. Culture shock?

No sooner had we setup up the fountain and turned on the water, a pretty little Lesser Goldfinch came to check things out. We didn’t even have time to remove the price tag ….

He must’ve thought it was a very nifty, little place to refresh himself, because he brought along his friends too.

Soon there was a little Lesser Goldfinch fountain party going on.A cardinal had to get in on the action too!

Ahh, I love spring. Balmy weather, birds are chirping and building nests, insects are buzzing and butterflies are searching for flowers to feed on.

Plants are slowly starting to come out of their winter slumber too.And it’s still pleasantly cool enough to get busy on all my spring time cleaning and gardening chores. Off I go!