Yard Stuff: Spring Edition

Spring is the best.  I feel terrible for all our poor friends and family in Michigan who are still dealing with 30-something degree weather and snow while it's just absolutely beautiful here.  All the trees have budded and these tiny leaves are appearing, making the trees look airbrushed with faint splashes of greens, white, and pink.  The grass has already perked up and has an amazing bright green glow to it and almost every night, someone in our neighborhood is mowing their lawn for the first time, filling the air with chlorophyll goodness.  Our daffodils have come and gone, making way for the tulips and their vibrant pinks and reds.  It seems like every day, new life has popped up somewhere and there's something else to be awed by and feel all twitterpated.

When we were shopping for a house, we saw many places that were much larger than The Grafton or much newer.  We could have even bought a small place in Old Town and you know how much we love Old Town, but I knew I needed a yard and the biggest yard we could afford.  So we ended up with our little shed of a house, but we have our 0.6 acres and I know that doesn't sound like much by Michigan standards.  However, here in the suburbs of DC, it's a pretty nice size and in our neighborhood, it almost feels like we're back home where the population density isn't something like one jillion people per square mile.  Throughout the end of fall and winter (i.e., the entire duration of our time here at The Grafton), it seemed pretty bleak and miserable.  All we had was our barren yard, broken glass, and a billion dead oak leaves to keep us company.  Now, though, it's like a completely different landscape.  The trees are in bloom, weird little plants are popping up all over the place, the moss patches are incredibly bright and puffy, and we even have small patches of grass growing here and there.  Not to mention the increasing variety of birds that have been coming around.  It's pretty amazing and I don't think a day goes by where either John or I comment on how lucky we feel and how we can't believe all this bounty is ours.

Anywho, while I was outside last weekend planting our container garden, I was taken aback by all the beauty around me and just had to take some photos of all of our yard stuff to share.  So, here it is:

Here is our suet feeder (thanks Mom Sue and Papa Harold!) and tube feeder.  You wouldn't believe all the different birds that come to feast.  We get blue jays, cardinals, chickadees, woodpeckers, doves, blue birds, brown headed cowbirds, Eastern towhees, finches, starlings, and other guys.  John's really getting into birdwatching and promises he'll contribute a more detailed post on our avian amigos.

This is an azalea... we think.  It's one of the bushes that already lived here when we moved in.  This guy is on the other side of our fence chunk.  Even since this weekend, it has tons more little flower buds waiting to open.

This is a close up of the little flower buds.  We think they look like little crab claws or Christmas lights.

 This bush is also a possible azalea.  It lives in the renovated flower bed on the side of our house, just underneath a window in our master bedroom.

These are a few of that bush's buds.

And a flower close up because it's pretty. :)

Here is the next bush over, with many more buds than its neighbor.  The following pictures are its flowers... and look how happy our pansies look!

These next few pictures are of some flowering trees around our yard.  I think they may be dogwoods, a cherry, and something else.  Too bad I didn't take any classes in forestry... oh wait... :)

Pretty flowers on what I think is the dogwood.

The possible cherry and its flowers.

I think this one is a beech.  Nothing special, but the leaves are so cute and I like the way the tree leans over.

These are just some cute buds and baby leaves on a tree nearby our backyard bed.

Another possible azalea bush.

This might be a weed, but I thought it was pretty cute.  It's grown much more in the past week or so, notwithstanding it sometimes falls victim to a grazing bichon who shall remain nameless...

These are some neat what I think are called bracket fungi growing on one of our many trees.

And finally, another tree fungus or something.  I just thought it was pretty.

So, there's our yard stuff.  Most of these photos were only taken a few days ago and everything has changed so much already.  It's just amazing.  I never thought a bunch of old scraggly bushes and trees, some weeds, and a couple types of fungus could make me so happy or proud.