Made it to April! Depending where you reside, so many experienced what felt like an endless stretch of cold and darkness. Around here you can almost hear sighs of relief echoing from all directions (regarding the weather, anyway).

I’m going to start here with a quick mention regarding a couple of unusual bird-related events. The first actually occurred a couple of weeks ago but I’m just getting to it now.

Spring brings along courtship rituals; the House Finches darting around my daughter’s home were in full swing. They kept flying in the garage while we were trying to pull the car out and leave to run some errands. Finally we were able to shoo them out and get on our way. But when we returned and walked into her house, there was one which had managed to get all the way inside the house and was frantically flapping around the hallway. I’m not sure how it actually managed to slip by us.

Her front hallway is the type which has a really high ceiling and a way up high window that is level with the second floor. It’s the kind of window where you wonder how anyone would normally get up to it to clean it (and also has the kind of light fixture in the ceiling that would be a challenge to change a lightbulb). That is how unreachable it is and where the lone House Finch was hanging out.

The poor thing kept fluttering and smashing itself against the glass. It was pretty upset and was impossible to get to. Despite opening the door wide to accommodate an exit, instead it would swoop away into the dining room into the window behind some houseplants, but it didn’t alight long enough to be caught before heading back to that high up window again.

From where I stood below I kept waving a towel to create some wind disturbance, which finally sent the bird off flapping into an upstairs bedroom. From there we were able to go into that room and close the door behind us, which had the bird a little bit more confined. In a stroke of luck, it then flew into the small bathroom off the bedroom, where I was able to shut myself into a tighter space with it, closing in. It finally alighted in the window, which I quickly opened and pushed out the bottom of the screen, allowing it to zoom away to freedom. Success!

Feeling a bit accomplished, I announced “The bird is gone!” and walked out of the room, only to find my young granddaughter standing there with an absolutely stricken look on her face. “Did you flush it?” she worriedly asked. Flush it??? I had to laugh. I didn’t ask her what her point of reference was to think that, but absolutely assured her that the bird safely flew out the window and back to its nest – and of course was not flushed down the toilet.

In other springtime related bird things, my brother happens to have a turkey decoy in his backyard that was inherited from his father-in-law. He doesn’t hunt for turkey himself, but they decided to stick it in the ground out back with all the other things they have out and about on their property. The other day he looked out the window to see a couple of turkeys curiously checking out the decoy. Unfortunately, the photo is a still taken from a video and not as clear as it could be. They were really funny.

Back home around the Urban Porch, the Chickadees have been singing (“Sweee-teeee”), the Northern Cardinals have been calling back and forth (“Wheet wheet wheet, pew pew pew“) and the Tufted Titmice have been “beeping”. (A friend once described the call of the Tufted Titmouse as being similar to the sound of a backup alarm on a truck, and now that is pretty much how I hear it…. “Peedeep, peedeep, peedeep”). Robins (the Official Ambassador of Spring, in my opinion) have been hanging out on the lawn, picking up whatever leftover seed the squirrels have spilled from our neighbor’s feeder.

The cycle has begun again, old friends returning to the yard. The fancy crocus in its stripey clown suit…..

the sunny daffodils……

and tulip with leaves like a pinstripe suit which comes up every year but never blooms.

The beginnings of the re-seeded hollyhocks are emerging. They will make stalks dotted with rows of washed out yellow flowers, which I’ve found to be underwhelming….. but I leave them to do their thing and grow every year.

Some of the sedum against the house has started, which actually will not bloom until the end of the summer. These will have small stalks of pale pink.

And one of my favorites, the Scilla. Because Blue!!!!

Each arrival is a series of tiny reunions. Some of these flowers are attached to old memories, creating an annual re-living, in a way.

While walking the dog down the street, it is exciting to see the variety of growth emerging in front of the neighbor’s homes. The people who have the Fence Dinosaur have clumps of pretty Hellebore coming up. All the Hellebore I planted years ago died; I think the invasive Trumpet Vine contributed to their demise.

Another home has installed one of those little library boxes, but this one is not just for books. People have been leaving toys and other items (some unusual) in there and also outside the box for anyone to have. The kids walking past seem to love it. I have left a few things in there before, but last week was the first time I ever partook of an item from the box. It was an ant farm. I was a bit excited to find this!

Years ago in this blog I had mentioned one of the more “different ” gifts I had historically received (see The Eye of the Beholder 12/13/2011). It was something which has always held a nerdy kind of appeal to me. This one will not be for me (mine had turned out to be a failure) but I figured one of the grandkids might really enjoy trying to get it going. Gifts of Spring!

I’ll wind down this First Days of April post by mentioning that the Dutch Baby of the week was Strawberry Vanilla.

And I’ve been cooking more asparagus, as it has been available, tender, and not very expensive at the moment. I’m ready for a few new seasonal recipes to try this year and add to the meal rotation.

Showers have been quenching the warming earth this afternoon. The greening is coming. April, please don’t fool us! It won’t be long before Little Rudi and I are back out on The Urban Porch again, sharing this small corner of the world with you……

~*~