It's May Already?!

   I can't believe it's May already, please oh please don't pass by too quick. Time really does fly when you're having fun!

   I want to send a out a big thank you to Carol over at Flower Hill Farm. Thank you for your kind words and for visiting my blog. It's your blog that has filled me with the most inspiration and joy, what you have created at your farm is what I aspire to. If any of my readers have yet to do so, please visit her blog and see for yourself! You'll be hooked!

   Saturday was a day for me to recharge my batteries. Not with food, sleep, or alcohol, but with a trip out into nature and intense aerobic exercise! I try get out at least twice a week and go hiking or mountain biking, yesterday was the latter. We are so fortunate here in the Roanoke area to have so many outdoor recreation opportunities, we have the Appalachian Trail, George Washington National Forest, Mill Mountain Preserve, Carvin's Cove Natural Area, Bottom Creek Gorge, just to name a few. Yesterday I went to Carvin's Cove, looking for wildflowers, wildlife, just to see the scenery and burn off some of that Haagen Dazs.
   Here's a few highlights of what I saw:

                                                                    Daisy Fleabane

                                                                     Wild Blueberry

                        Bluets, aka Quaker Ladies or Innocence. I love these, they're so delicate.

                        Sawmill Branch looking healthy thanks to all the rain we've had this spring.

One of a dozen or so caves above Sawmill Branch, undoubtedly home to one of the Cove's many black bears. I am fortunate to see a bear occasionally, they're truly magical.

       Camo deluxe! This is a plain-bellied water snake. (Not poisonous!) Beautiful in its simplicity.

   Well, that wraps up another busy week here. Jeff and I finally planted our last tree of the season, #7!, a serviceberry. I thought we'd never get it in the ground, it was always raining or still too wet from the last rain. That makes 2 serviceberries, 2 crabapples, and 3 dogwoods. Some are here at home, the others are at Dean, our other habitat (I'll explain that later). We had several first of the season sightings (Indigo Bunting, Scarlet Tanager, Hooded Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, Kingbird, Hummingbird Moth, and a Buckeye (the butterfly not the bush!) feasting on my Catmint.

   Thanks for visiting, and have a beautiful week!