Hello once again everyone on this very beautiful sunny day!  It has been such a nice, warm week with plenty of sunshine, but today, although the sun continues to shine, the north wind is blowing and it has gotten much cooler.  Still, with the sun shining on the deck, which is also sheltered nicely from the wind, it is quite pleasant indeed.  And I have plenty of nice hot coffee available for a little extra warmth.  For those who don’t like coffee, which is so hard to imagine, I also have some nice hot mint or raspberry leaf tea, plus some hot chocolate available.

I first should point out the lovely cherry tree next door which also spills its many branches over the fence to our side.  Just look at those deep pink blossoms starting to open.  And the buds are almost a dark red in color.  It will still take a couple more days to be fully covered in blooms so hopefully the sun will stay around to get some nice pictures of this tree.  Even the apple tree is almost ready to start blooming as well.  That poor apple tree is much smaller since the bear broke it in half last year.  Those bears love apples.  The bear was around a couple nights this week again and made a big mess out on my deck.  Why does he keep coming back?  There is no food out there for him.  I think he just likes to look in the window at Muffin and scare the poor cat.

There are quite a few flowers blooming around the area now.  The pincherry across the street is blooming nicely.  That is a nice wild berry tree with delicious orange red berries that make great jelly and syrup.  I used to make both at one time, but they just don’t produce berries like they used to.  Mainly because there is not enough bees around to pollinate them properly, therefore, not many berries are produced.

There are lots of wild strawberries blooming now, might get quite a few berries this year. There isn’t enough to really do much since wild strawberries are quite small.  But they are good on my cereal in the morning, put on top of a bowl of oatmeal.  Fantastic.  Hopefully my landlord doesn’t cut them down.  She considers them weeds.  Sigh.  The birds just scattered.  Look, over in that tree.  It’s a broad-winged hawk.  He’s a beautiful bird, but a terror for the smaller birds.  This is one of our forest hawks who loves to dine on birds.  They must be nesting somewhere not far away since he comes around now and then.  There go the crows chasing that hawk away.  And just before I was going to get a picture of him too.  Maybe next time.  I have missed 3 times now, that’s bad.

There are still a few birds coming around to my, um, squirrel feeder.  There is a couple pairs of chickadees nesting close by and are coming daily for food.  They are looking much thinner these days then they do in winter.  The goldfinches are also nesting close by.  They are always so nice to see in their cheery bright yellow outfit.

Well, it was nice to have you stop by for coffee once again!  It’s always a treat to have you visit us here and I hope you have enjoyed your coffee time.  Perhaps next time you come we will take a walk down to the lake for our coffee break.  Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

© 2019 Steve McLeod.