Spring Blooms

I was gone for the weekend.  I came home late this afternoon and planned on working on my flower beds this  evening.  The temperature is not quite inviting though and when I heard there were frost warnings in effect tonight, I got my camera and captured a few pics of some beautiful spring plants.  I am not sure what the frost will do to them, but seeing as they are all perennials, they should be okay.

Woodland ferns (I think), never more beautiful than when in the fiddle-head stage!

Primroses -- begifted to me last year by one of my sisters.  This is their second show.  They came up right after the snow went.  I killed them off by removing their leaf cover too soon.  I am really glad to see them again.

Pulmonaria -- also known as Joseph's coat or lung-wort -- a spring bloomer, and a favourite of mine for its beautiful hosta-like leaves in the summer.

This is the first time this fern leaf peony blooms!  Can't wait for the flowers and hoping the frost doesn't damage them.

Yellow cushion spurge with bleeding heart and day lilies in the background.

Spring update

Well, yes...

these pictures were taken yesterday morning, May 2nd ...and a fine one it was too!

  You can see one of my students without a jacket in the picture.  I took  my class out for a walk.  We have been studying 'Air and Water in the Environment' for science.  What better way to learn than to go out on a spring morning and find the evidence.  We did find ice, water, and snow; however, there was not a cloud to be seen.

Lucky for us the weekend fury had passed...

leaving us with an interesting combination of snow, ice, and budding leaves on the Manitoba maple tree.

I liked the ice formations on the slough edge, evidence to water being wind-washed on the banks.  It was frozen over when we visited, and stones being skipped slid and bounced their way to a stop.

Northern Flicker (wood pecker family), 

a first real sighting for me.  

I have seen the bird around but never got close enough to identify it. I do need a camera with a better zoom!!

In my spare moments --

A patchwork quilt I am working on.

  It is almost done -- just in time for warmer weather.  I have been planning on a new quilt for a while now.  I learned how to do the binding stitch and am finishing it off by hand.  This is a quite enjoyable task; I am done one side and a corner (quite a feat, I must say).

More on it later.  This will be the first quilt I actually finish!