RAT a TAT days

"Rat a tat tat. Rat a tat tat. Just like a baseball player......." - R. Raphe

A few years ago the Flickers took residence next door. For a month in spring they proceeded to pound on the hollow pillars  of the house. "Rat a tat tat. Rat a tat tat." The whole neighbourhood could hear them. Morning, Noon and Night long after dusk. "Rat a tat tat." This year, it was our turn. Except, they keep bonking into the chimney. Flap flap go their wings. I image they look longingly at the pillars next door. They  have a crush on those pillars. Instead they go rat a tat tat on our chimney. Not quite the same for them, I think. 

   All the early stuff is growing, leaps and bounds. Native Cranesbill has hit the ground running.................

"It is a very beautiful day........I did not know that clouds could be like this..." -Unica Zurn

Babeeeeee Cosmos toddles along . Reseeds itself from yar to year.  By July it will be all growdeed up....

               "The world is exploding..." -Amy Seidl

                                                          New Hosta from old plants.

First time ever. Pear blossoms. Have never seen it blossom till now.........

Centaurea. Reseeded from somewhere else. Maybe the Flickers brought the seeds in their travels.

"Surely the flowers of a hundred springs are simply the souls of beautiful things. "- L.M. Montgomery

"Something in the air this morning made me feel like flying..." 

                                                                     -Eileen Granfors

Helleborus, almost done. Making way for ferns, and bleeding hearts..............

 " Everywhere were touches or splashes of gold and purple and white and the trees were showing pink.....”
-Frances Hodgson Burnett

"Early spring. Hyacinths on my desk.  .Hope for light,  for warmth, for thawing soil...." -Beth Wiles 

"The weather here is windy, balmy, sometimes wet..." -Edward Abbey

But at the end of the day, you see the cats, lolling about in the dirt on the hill. Listening to the "Rat a tat tat" of the Flickers . Loud and long lonely staccato.  "Rat a tat tat"  way into the night......

"In Spring at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt..."

                                                             -Margaret Atwood