April come she will...

Along with April, Spring has come to Ridgehaven.   She's been tantalizing us for several weeks now, only to suddenly withdraw her warmth and send us more cold weather.  I'm a novice to these mountains, and I may be fooled again, but it "feels" as if she's here to stay.  Don't get me wrong--I have thoroughly enjoyed the leisurely pace of winter, but if it's Spring on the calendar, it needs to be Spring in reality.



We kept hoping for a "big snow" but were disappointed that we didn't get it.  By "big" I mean the 12 or 15 inches that fell two years ago, when we had first bought the place.  This year, it snowed for the first time in October and snowed last week, maybe for the last time this season.  For me, snow is still enough of a novelty that I get excited when it sticks, although I must confess that cleaning off the windshield of my truck last week was not fun, especially since the temperature  was in the low 20s.  I had an early appointment and did not get to enjoy the fun on the toboggan that Carol and Sue (our sweet neighbor) shared in my absence.   And, like most of the pitiful little snowfalls we had this winter, it melted in the few short hours I was gone.

We can be ingenious though, as evidenced by the fact that we taught two of Sue's grandkids the joy of "grass sledding" just the other day.  It's surprising how a plastic toboggan and a spray can of furniture polish can be almost as good--especially for kids from Florida who don't know anything about snow anyway.

I know spring is here because of some of the following reasons:

 

1.  I am already taking joy in the sound of the song sparrow in our front yard. Even now, I can hear his sweet voice.  I think he's sitting in the same tree, on the same branch as he claimed last summer.  It will be time for the hummingbirds soon, so I need to get my feeders ready for the early arrivals.  For the past few months, I've enjoyed the constant company of the messy titmouse, who takes the sunflower seeds and cracks them all over th porch, and his friends the chickadee. and the dove.  New to me this year was the dark eyed junko, and I love the timid little towhee.  The cardinals have been a constant, of course, as have the sparrows.  It makes my heart glad to see the colors of the goldfinch changing from their muted winter plumage to the spring greenish yellow that will make them one of my favorites all summer.

 

 

2.  My ongoing battle to keep the squirrels out of my bird feeder is intensifying.  I even have Carol joining in--the Daisy Red Rider BB gun is getting a workout.  As of this morning, however, they seem to be winning.  I have chased at least four squirrels away today, or maybe it's the same four.  Maybe they're just circling the house and coming round again from a new direction.  More likely, I think the are bringing their cousins who are still in town for Easter.  And they're getting smart.  All they have to hear is the rolling of the BBs down the barrel and they hightail it up the tree and out of sight.  I HAVE been known to stalk them, shooting at them until they run back into the woods, but I fear that when one of them is distracting me, four or five others are running to the feeder.  I KNOW that even as I write this, they are finishing off the remainder of those seeds...sigh.

 

3.   Color is bursting out all over, from the forsythia and the trees to the flower beds.  Actually, we've had flowers blooming for several weeks in the form of the wonderful daffodils that are ubiquitous up here.  Their bloom cycle is nearing an end, but the tulips are coming up, the forsythia is blooming its bright yellow, the weeping cherry is asserting its pale pink blossoms, and the hyacinths are blooming.  Recently we discovered the serviceberry trees with their white blossoms which appear early in the spring and are a common sight in the woods.

Here are a few bright patches of color I found on the property yesterday, including some cute little weeds.

 

Many of these lovely daffodils were originally on the property from the previous owners, and others we ordered from catalogues.  Carol has sworn me to secrecy regarding the newest arrivals, but here's a hint...it involved a deserted country road, a shovel, and a lookout.  Enough said.

 4.  We're both eager to get to digging in the dirt.  Carol has already planted (or more accurately has continued to plant) seeds in the vegetable garden.  That's her baliwick.  I like the flower garden better, and we're very excited about a new landscaping project that's underway.  We've hired a professional  design guy to help us with what we are calling the meadow garden, which is a spot of about 150x30 feet we are hoping to make beautiful as well as to eliminate some of the  mowing I can't do on that steep slope.  The design plan is well under way, with a great deal of input from Carol, and we hope to have it in by May.  We have done some heavy duty spraying to--hopefully--arrest the steady encroachment of the grass, the horrible vines and the woody stemmed plants that have thrived there for years in what we called "the thicket", if that tells you anything about what it looked like before we cleaned it out.  We seem to keep adding more places that need more care, but since Carol is the gardener who does most of the work, I can't complain.  It should be quite lovely when it's finished, and if I can contribute by holding the water hose and occasionally spraying, then I'm more than happy to do it.  Carol spent countless hours during the past few winter months pouring over information before making the selections for the shrubs and flowers we both like.  For someone who claimed to be technologically challenged when I first met her, she and my iPad have become good friends.  Carol has also begun her "woodland garden" and we have established a seating area in the woods.  Someday this area will abound with ferns, shade loving shrubs, and hostas.  Strangely enough, I find that I like this "sunset terrace" area almost as much as I like the porch.  It's a slightly different view and more cozy among the trees.

 

Speaking of flowers, we are leaving in a couple of weeks to go to a part of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park that's over in Tennessee called Cosby Campground.  They are having a wildflower viewing event, and we hope to get there a few days before the crowds.  It's a part of the park I've not been to, so I'm excited to see it.  Supposedly, it's more isolated and less traveled than some of the campgrounds, which I like.  It's not tourist season yet, but the GSMNP gets a lot of visitors, so I hope we don't have crowds.  I like crowds even less now than ever, now that I'm accustomed to the peace and serenity of  Ridgehaven.  We hope we aren't too early for the flowers, but in this climate one never knows.  I need to get Dora (my Casita travel trailer) unwinterized and ready for the trip, but that should only take a few hours and the weather is getting perfect for that.   Another summer camping trip we have planned is to see the synchronous fireflies in June.  Is that cool or what???

 

It's hard to believe we've been here through three seasons already.  These past ten months have been simply wonderful.  As I tell anyone who asks (or even those who don't) I have been happier in these past months than I ever dreamed was possible.  Retirement has meant the freedom to relax, to live life at my own pace, to reacquaint myself with pleasures such as movies and books, and to simply live in such a glorious setting that it takes my breath away sometimes.  Right now I can hear the tinkling of several windchimes as well as  the songs of the birds, and I know the sun is shining on  this beautiful mountain morning.  This new life has truly been a gift, and I can't wait to see what the next few months bring.  I hope they bring more guests, more hikes, more birdwatching, and THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF DONNA PARKER.