Where Is This Thing Called Spring?

Spring is painfully slow making its way to the upper Midwest. I searched the yard for color and new growth to share with you. Not much out there.

Some people seem to like these Red Twig Dogwoods because the red branches add some color to our winter landscapes. In the summer the leaves are green and if you're lucky, there are white blooms in late spring/early summer. We have four of these and none of them give us blooms and no matter how far we cut them down in the fall they grow to be almost seven feet tall if left alone. I don't like them at all and had nothing to do with them being planted in our yard. The credit for the savage pruning goes to my husband.


My lovely, lovely Raspberry Splash Pulmonaria aka Lungwort is making herself visible. The leaves will be a silvery green and the numerous raspberry-pink flowers will sit atop the leaves. Grows well in light shade and brightens dark areas. I planted one in 2007 and another one last year.



Even the birds around here are drab looking this time of year. But I do love the Mourning Dove and its soft mournful voice. I like the peaceful way they behave when visiting our yard. Here are come cool facts about Mourning Doves that I found on www.birds.cornell.edu.

During nest-building, the female stays at the nest and the male collects sticks. He stands on her back to give her the nest material. She takes it and weaves it into the nest.

The Mourning Dove almost invariably lays two eggs. Clutches of three or four are the result of more than one female laying in the nest. A dove may have up to five or six clutches in a single year.

A Mourning Dove pair rarely leaves its eggs unattended. The male usually incubates from midmorning until late afternoon, and the female sits the rest of the day and night.

The Mourning Dove is the most widespread and abundant game bird in North American. Despite being hunted throughout most of its range, it remains among the 10 most abundant birds in the United States.