Old and New

I took this photo of these dandelions because I liked that one has gone to seed already and the other is just blooming. Every where I walk right now the woods are soggy and cool. The smaller plants are weighted down by raindrops, and everything looks as though it could use a few good days of sunshine. These dandelions are one of the few blooms left at the moment.

After a day of clouds yesterday, today it is raining again. The weather feels more like April than May. I’m just hoping that whenever the weather does clear the temperature doesn’t jump right into August and stay that way.

The rain has made the forest’s foliage even denser and more lush than it usually is. As a result, even though I’m hearing lots of birds, I’m actually not seeing very many, even when I can tell the bird is very close. A Baltimore oriole has been singing from a tree in the middle of the driveway all week long, and I still haven’t seen him. Last evening, I stood outside with my binoculars, scouring the tree where the sound was coming from and I still didn’t find him. Occasionally, one of the regular crew will visit my bird feeders, and I’ll see birds then, but that’s about the only way I’m seeing them.