March 16, 2025

Well, folks, we worked up to March 9 last week, but guess what!  When I got up to photograph the sky first thing in the morning THIS morning, the day suddenly didn't look quite right.  Oh yes, we underwent the "Time Change".  So March 10 (picture 1) at 7:30 am was suddenly a lot darker out there than March 9 was.   The picture you see here shows a vertical red streak through the much darker sky of about 7:30 on March 7, which looks more like 6:30 on March 6.  Being a "morning person", I'm definitely not in favor of this "time change". I had to set my camera's clock back too.  But I'll make you a deal.  We don't have to do this again till mid-Fall! 

 Yes, the temperatures have definitely changed for the springier.  Flowers and other plants are showing up every day.  These purplish Crocuses? are all over the yard now.  And the Western Honeybees (The only honeybee species we have) are all over the place now.   

We already saw the Winter Aconites explode last week.  They cover large areas of the ground now, and are similarly filled with Honeybees.

There are lots of kinds of Green Plants that I don't recognize yet.  Last week we found the Red Deadnettle, but it still doesn't have the reddish-purple markings we are told will come!  There are other Mystery Plants too, like the one on the right.    One that was suggested to us from last week was the Bedstraws but I haven't seen them doing any evolving. Yet!

Yesterday the world was full of those light-purple crocuses.   Today, March 15, we added a darker shade.  It is so windy now.  Dead leaves fill the Pond faster than I can batten down a protective cover.  I hope I can control this soon!

Out at the Pond, I keep looking and looking for Frogs.  Remember we saw that tiny one a week or three ago?  Well, the other day I thought I saw a very large one kicking and scratching just inside the Pond.  But I had not brought  out my camera yet so missed that scene in case it had really happened!  I want my Frogs!   Wait!  What is this fair-sized thing clinging to the pond-side and kicking?  My friends, I really believe our Frog season is upon us!  So what we see now is a smaller frog on the left and a much larger one on the right.  These two pictures were from March 14.  

Not long after spotting the small frog and the larger one on the East side of the Pond, this BIG Frog appeared on the West side.  That netting is supposed to be keeping the leaves out of the Pond but it is reminiscent of the scene last fall where the Frog was behind a net too.  I believe this is that nice big female Frog!  Here she is without the net.

We've had our share of other critters too.  Here's a common  American Winter Ant.  a Rove Beetle,  and an Asian Lady Beetle.  We mostly see these indoors and sometimes one will wake me up trying to get warm on my face!

Here we have two Blow Flies, first a Blue Blow Fly and then a Black Blow Fly.  I'm not sure of number 3, but it's a Fly!  There certainly are a lot of Flies in this world.  Did you get that impression?

This morning, March 16, you can see the mess made yesterday by the wind, flinging those leaves every which way and getting the Pond covered with leaves.  I tried to get the leaf net over the mess.  But by dark it was a TRUE mess and I had to give up.  It's raining now.  Did I say, "What a mess!"  Well, my friends, keep your minds on saving our climate - it is going to need a lot of help!   Love, Martha