April 26, 2026

The tiny blue-purple Forget-me-nots have one of the hardest names to remember :-), but represent one of the prettiest of all the early flowers!  

Columbine comes in a couple of colors - here it is in blue-and-white!  I know, you are probably thinking  I am a caeruleaphile, and you wouldn't be far off!  Just think of the word "cerulean" for "blue-colored"...  Other bearers of my favorite color might be found in a list like https://www.proflowers.com/blog/blue-flowers.  Are you surprised how many different shades of blue might exist in Nature?  Don't sell Nature short!

Blue is indeed one of Nature's most prominent colors.  Birds like the Blue Jay come in it.  The mysterious little batches of mysterious blue pockets (picture 2) and Virginia Bluebells (blooming nowadays as in picture 3) all come in shades of Blue!

There is one flower that is blooming quite a lot these days, and that's the Squills or Scilla.  You may have read (to some surprise on your part) that not everyone admires that flower, and in fact it is regarded as somewhat trashy to have it in one's garden.   Now we have that out of the way, I do like the color and since I don't have much else to fill that niche in my garden, I've never minded having it around, but I am yielding to public pressure and won't be adding any!  If it turns out to be too pushy, I will consider pulling up much or all of it.  

Here is a nice stand of Virginia Bluebell.  

Here is an American Toad.  There are no apparent Frogs out there nowadays, and so I'm glad to have the good old Toads back for now.  Why would I prefer Frogs?  Well, I didn't read any cute stories about Toads in Childhood, and maybe that established a prejudice towards Frogs.  Whatever the reason, Toads are in in Michigan and I'm glad to see them.  The big mating seems to be over now.  

Fishes are swimming in the pond.  Right now, we don't seem to have many kinds, but the white ones that were here in the Fall are still here now.   There are also a few little red ones that Chaim put into the pond a few months ago - I'm happy to support them too!  

Here is a large Groundhog that seems to like it around here.  

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