Photos: Flowerbeds

[ysabetwordsmith]

The first crocuses are blooming! I just had to take pictures when I spotted them this morning. Yesterday they were just buds.


Today I saw that the snow crocuses had started blooming in the rain garden.




These are blooming pale lavender.




Here is a closer view of one.




The one that had faint stripes on the bud yesterday turns out to be a slightly darker lavender once open.




Daffodils are now sprouting in the daffodil bed, so I need to rake that off soon. Just in the last day or two, they're up a couple inches.




I spotted one of the mourning doves high up a tree at the west edge of the savanna.




There are squirrel flets all over the big trees in the yard. This one is up the maple tree that stands between the house yard and the south lot.

Comments

[galadhir]

Are they called squirrel flets for real? Or is that just you being a Tolkien fan? It would tickle me to think that people had adopted the term from him :)

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

"Flet" is one of many names for squirrel homes, along with "drey" and the more general "nest." I learned "flet" from my grandparents so it may be a more southern dialect term. The etymology seems to mean "house" or "ground," but I've heard it primarily for arboreal structures. A platform for hunting may be called a flet, but enclosed structures would more typically be called a hunting blind or a treehouse.

Re: Yes ...

[galadhir]

Oh, I've heard of 'drey' but the only time I've come across 'flet' was for the flat platform-dwellings of the wood-elves in LotR, so it amused me to know that it's shared with squirrels. It turns out that Tolkien was just using the word as it's supposed to be used. Good for him ;)

[moonhare]

Your yard is at least a month ahead of ours. My daffodils and crocuses are still under eight inches of snow with much more to come Monday.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

It's supposed to freeze again this week, but not snow.

One thing I enjoy about nature communities with far-flung members is getting to see and read about things at very different stages. There are some folks in tropical areas posting pictures that are all green! :D And then the northern states are still snowy.