Spring Continues - Tulips, Honeyberries, Trash

Spring continues to take shape here on the Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes urban homestead.  There are finally flocks of robins (Alycia contends this is the true indicator of the arrival of Spring) clamoring around and there's been some rustling and commotion from the garage cubbyhole where the garden gnomes are hibernating, I think they're beginning to awaken from their winter slumber.  More on the developing garden gnomes situation later this week.

The tulips continue to emerge, looking ready for a good spring color show.

I think we may even get our first tulip blooms this week.  My fingers are crossed.

The honeyberry is almost fully leafed out and looks terrific.  It's not a native but thrives in our very cold winters and was one of the first plants to set leaves.  It needs another variety as a pollinator and the second honeyberry we had was nothing more than a 4 inch bare root twig didn't survive last summer due to a series of unfortunate episodes of neglect when I was out of town.  We may buy another pollinator this year so we get berries.  The berries are small, oblong, dark blue (like a blueberry) and very tart.  They are not the best to eat raw and we'll use them to make jam.  

One of the Spring tasks I despise is picking up all the trash that accumulates over the winter, gets stuck in the snow and then reveals itself after the snow melts.  The truth is that picking up trash is not just a Spring job, but an unfortunate year round task for Alycia and I.  The regular heavy winds are partly to blame as they tend to blow trash around until it gets caught on shrubs and windbreaks, but the majority of the fault is with people who are just messy inconsiderate litterers.  Weekly we pick up candy wrappers, cigarette butts, pieces of paper, soda bottles, fast food bags, beer cans, you name it.  People who litter suck.

Every once in a while the litter though is mildly entertaining, such as the picture above - I found the Giraffe 9 of Spades in the garden. 

The Giraffe 9 of hearts was in the front yard (sorry the picture didn't come out great).  How these particular cards made it into our yard I'll never know.  Perhaps this was a losing hand in some majestic poker game.  Or perhaps this was the winning hand (tallest animal on the card wins?), we'll never know.  What I do know is that littering is pretty bad around here and it makes me sad/angry. 

It's a lovely sunny day outside, 70 degrees and light winds, the perfect day for some light outdoor tasks with periodic bouts of distracted bird watching and miscellaneous procrastinations.  Have a fabulous Sunday.