I can’t believe I’m back again posting so soon, but it seems the season is suddenly unspooling so quickly that I can’t keep up with it and feel the urge to share my somewhat nerdy excitement about the flora/fauna explosion. Actually, I’ve had a particularly difficult day dealing with “The System” (you can insert here whatever inept bureaucracy happens to be frustrating you at any given moment – we’ve all been there. Today was one of those times). Due to whatever human incompetence or system malfunction occurred this morning, I will have to deal with the follow up of that situation again tomorrow. To bring myself down a few notches from my vast irritation and get back to center, I’ve eaten copious amounts of chocolate (to the point of nausea) and decided to focus on a little more local nature from the Urban Porch. So here we are, sooner than I had planned.

Moody clouds rolled in, giving us a little bit of thunder, a hint of lightening and a quick soaking yesterday. The glowing green of the unfurling maple buds against the smoky sky was so pleasing.

Showers were all that was needed in order to kick everything into high gear here. To the right of where I sit on the Urban Porch, the Dogwood has suddenly popped.

Sparkling raindrops cling to the branches and flowers. A bright yellow Goldfinch, his mate, and a Purple House Finch crowd together at my neighbor’s feeder, which hangs from the lowest limbs.

Beneath the bird feeders, the Hyacinth continues to glow.

The House Sparrows are relentlessly chirping, noisily breeding, and building their nests. Holding pieces of grass and twigs in their beaks that were thrown off by my mower the other day, they flit from the lawn to the still bare Rose of Sharon, then up to the top corner of the porch, disappearing into the soffit, as they do year after year. Then they stand there and tweet. And tweet. And tweet. For hours. The songs of the Northern Cardinals and raucous crows are the only birds loud enough to compete with their chatter right now.

A Mourning Cloak butterfly suddenly lands on the badly peeling railing. It didn’t stay for more than a few seconds, but I am pretty sure that is what it was. First butterfly of the season! The second one of the season just flew past my head a little while ago – a white Cabbage butterfly.

Up the sidewalk a few paces, my neighbor’s tulips are out, all in a row…

And across the street, the Cherry blossoms have begun again….always a treat.

The sun dodges in and out all afternoon. Shifting shadows and winds, gray clouds followed by bursts of blue, then back to gray again. I’m just sitting out here, decompressing and trying to soak in and store up enough of the Nature Drug to carry through the week.

~*~