The miracle of life is so evident in the springtime I believe.  One day the world is still dark, brown, cold and then one morning it just appears to have switched canvases.  The trees have burst forth with green, the flowers pop out mysteriously from sleeping in frozen ground, the birds return, singing and rejoicing.

My volunteer magnolia tree.

The gardenia bush is loaded with buds this year.

The Victorian rose bush that my mother-in-law gave me was a little sprig just a few years ago.  It's bursting forth with pink!

The bees are enjoying all the blooms.

I'm impressed with all our apples, but a little anxious too, for the deer ate them ALL  last summer!

Speaking of birds, we have witnessed the miracle of baby chicks at our house....


Just two weeks ago on a Saturday as Hart went up to the chicken coop, he heard an extraordinary amount of frantic chirping.  Inside the coop huddled in one corner, all alone, was the smallest, fluffiest black chick.  He had somehow gotten on the other side of the nesting box and was not happy about it.  We knew the Blue Cochin was sitting on her eggs, plus the other Cochin's eggs and even some Rhode Island Red eggs. She was taking anyones eggs as her own.  And she was feisty if you tried to get them.  We rescued the chick and decided that we'd take all the eggs and incubate them on our own.  We didn't want anymore broody hens.  My sun room became the nesting spot and new home to the chick.  We set up our operation, turning the eggs as they sat under the light, misting them to keep the humidity right.  Imagine our surprise when two days later there was a crack in one of the eggs.  Slowly a wet, ugly little bird emerged.  This chick,once dry, was a lovely cream color.  Two days later it happened again.  Chick number three is tan with a stripe down his back.  So we have eight eggs left that we've candled and we pray the miracle will happen again.



   

The miracle.

 

Three in a row.

Siblings.

They all sleep under the stuffed chicken that Nan put in there.

   

Adorable black Cochin.

Pretty cream Cochin.

                                                                        The striped one.

More eggs to hatch.

One afternoon the girls and I walked the dogs down by the lake.  We saw the mother duck and her babies, the geese with their young'uns and the Blue Heron.  Such a gorgeous sight.




The next few nature photos are by Cate.

 By the lake.
 

Mother duck with her 9 babies.

We saw the blue heron land on shore.

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The Canada geese love North Carolina.














Back at home...

Nan enjoys the spring weather, while doing her homework.

But not having her picture taken!