Warmer Weather

Days of balmy sunshine here.

We've had windows open and the sliding glass door as well.

Teasel sprawls luxuriously under a bench enjoying the the warm pool of sunshine.

I have scattered poppy seeds [papaver sommniferum] over the bare spots in my middle flower border.

I have "Lauren's Grape", "Pink Peony", "Black Swan," and "Heirloom"--all from Select Seeds.

A strange dog has appeared twice this week.

No collar but somehow she doesn't seem like a stray.

I  think she has had puppies a number of times.

She is friendly and loving, but immediately carries off the cat dishes.

Within moments she leaves.

The old mother dog belongs to neighbors just down the road.

The lady of the house has taken to late afternoon walks accompanied by the yellow dog and a young boy who pushes an old-fashioned scooter.

Apparently the dog likes to make a little detour to see if we have any interesting tidbits available.

The wind has been brisk all day, sending huge billowing clouds across the sky, blotting out the sun, then parting to let it through again.

Laundry snapped and flapped on the clotheslines as we worked outside.

Several times we heard the cronking of the sand hill cranes swirling overhead.

Red-winged blackbirds appeared to pick up the seeds that fall from the bird feeder in the maple tree.

Their shoulder patches are pale, not yet flaunting the scarlet of the courting season.

Inside the cats have skittered about, inflating their tails and huffing over nothing we can see.

I tried several settings to take photos of the moon as it rode the swift-moving clouds.

None of the photos do justice to the wild and lovely night.

J. heard the spring "peepers" singing from the low ground by the creek across the road.

I listened, but my hearing is no longer sharp enough to pick up that welcome trill when the wind is whistling and the wind chimes clanging.

Willis and Sadie furled themselves about my ankles as I walked about in the glow of the yard light.

Willis has a "thing" about bowling Sadie over.