March 8, 2026

The Amaryllis are still performing their early Spring act indoors.  

Outdoors, the Honeybees are busy welcoming the Winter Aconites.  I still want to call them the Spring Aconites, since my internal clock sets itself to Spring when I first spot those gorgeous yellow blossoms each year!

Usually, I first look around for our little snowdrops.  This is a slightly hard task, since the Snowdrops tend to spring up (get it???) in Deb Seelys' part of the yard first, but this year they are cooperating sweetly and showing in our side right from the start.  

I THINK this next is a Purple Hyacinth, which is usually the next thing up.  

Yep, that's our Purple Hyacinths getting themselves off to a good start!  At Right, We have several kinds of Thistles.  These blond-leaved ones are sometimes called Cotton Thistles.

We (Chaim did all the physical labor and all the action in the Pond) gave the one fish in the Pond (I didn't even remember it existed!!!)  a chance to swim about in a bucket of nice clean water.  The last picture shows one view of a Varied Carpet Beetle, thanks to iNat .  

So, my friends, here is your short story about life in the Pond at this "End-of-winter".  I do believe that this is the beginning of the beginning of Spring in Albion, Michigan.   I hope you are able to enjoy the scenes of Nature that you will find in your own yard.  This was just a short telling of mine.  By the way, speaking of the scenes of Nature, we did have a couple of bad-weather warnings in the past couple of days.  If that ain't Spring, what is?

Please enjoy your own outdoors places and try to keep them as loveable as possible!  Love, Martha, and

HAPPY SPRING!!!!!!