This morning, I decided to do something that I never do. I got a cup of coffee and sat out on my front step. I just sat there and listened and watched. There were dozens of birds singing and a few squirrels scheming.  And, for a few seconds, a squirrel on the porch railing next door yelling at me.  I’m not sure how I feel about that.  I was just minding my own business.  I may have to make a peace offering later.

There’s not a lot of human activity in my neighborhood on Saturday mornings, I guess that’s probably true in most places.  That’s probably a good thing.  People are resting and recovering from a week of work (and hopefully some play).  It also gives me an opportunity to commune with nature in the middle of a city.

Some of our flowers are in bloom.  It looks like they took advantage of our long, cool spring and are very happy.  Many of our plants are bigger and have more flowers than ever before.

Pink Columbine

Our hydrangea bushes are just starting to form buds that will blossom all summer.  It might be my favorite plant.  Our boxwoods made it through the winter with very little winter burn.  We had good snow cover all winter long so that protected the leaves.  Last summer we lost one boxwood plant and had severe burn on the others so it’s good to see them healthy this year.

Our chive plants are monsters this year.  We have more chives than we know what to do with, so we let these couple of plants go into bloom before we cut them back to the ground.  They have very distinctive blossoms that look kind of like a exploding fireworks.

Speaking of blossoms that look like fireworks, check out our Mountain Bluet.  It is going nuts this year!

Mountain Bluet

Take some time and soak up the natural world around you.  Get out and live the Backyard Life!