Spring is such a beautiful time of year – I love to walk around my gardens to see plants waking from their winter slumber. The new buds and blooms bring the bees and butterflies. I’ve even got frogs, eggs, and tadpoles! I’ve got a lot of pictures of “spring at my house,” so I hope you enjoy.

This is an orchard bee (Osmia sp), on the brilliantly blooming redbud tree. This was one of my first visitors last spring as well.

This is native coral honeysuckle – just waiting for the first Ruby-throated Hummingbird. It should be here soon!

This White-throated Sparrow is one of many visitors to my yard. Here, he is posing on the ground beneath the one feeder that I offer to birds and squirrels alike. They only get a “snack” of  black oil sunflower seeds, and a daily scoop of peanuts in the shell.

This is a White-crowned Sparrow, looking over the fence at the Bluebonnets that are beginning to bloom!

This year, my Bluebonnet patch has nearly doubled from last year. Its gonna be awesome!

This bloom has barely started to show, and it already has a visitor

It sure looks like someone has taken a bite out of this mushroom. My dogs?

I finished the pond edge, finally. The last thing I had to do was bring in a load of the native shale-type rock that is so abundant in my area. I used this white rock to cover up the pond liner that comes up and over the inner border of steel edging. Now, we get to sit back and enjoy!

Frog eggs! I LOVE my frogs. It seems a little early to have frog eggs, but they seem to be doing fine…

This is just one tadpole – there are LOTS. Most of them hide near the edge, in the vegetation and in the spaces between the rocks.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these early spring images from my gardens. Perhaps your own garden is starting to bloom. If you don’t have a garden of your own, maybe you could visit a local park or wildlife refuge. It is hard to describe the beauty and purity of spring, or the sense of wonder it inspires. I’ll let these pictures do the talking this time!

Happy Spring!