The Lilacs Will Bloom Again...

So here we are, it's the last day of April. In a month it will practically be June, and I know for a fact that June is summer, there will be leaves on the trees, flowers in the woods, butterflies on the wing. Swallows will be dipping, shorts will be worn and we'll be cursing the mosquitos, the ticks and the deer flies. But so far? Not a peep. I can't even say that the lilacs are in bud, because they are not. There's even some snow on the ground!

So anyway, I hit on the idea of photographing the same spot weekly until the weeds grow too tall or the bugs too formidable. This is one of our nameless ponds, which is sometimes a pond and sometimes not, depending on how much precipitation we've had and what the beavers have been up to. It needs a name, so I'm calling it Meadow Pond, because it looks more like a meadow than a pond these days, in spite of all the snow and rain. I'll return to Meadow Pond next week.

I took an exploratory walk in the woods this morning on the paths and deer trails to the east of Meadow Pond. In a month, these trails will be barely penetrable but for now, the going was easy, if a little bit soggy. It was raining, but not too much. I was looking for a small hidden lake that nephew W. had taken us to a few years ago. I'll call this the Ghost Pond, partly because I haven't been able to find it again on my own, and partly because it contains a number of standing dead trees and is slightly eerie.

At this time of year, the Ghost Pond was easy to find. It's bigger than all the other woodland ponds that I know of and there were a large number of ducks on it, all to far away for me to identify. There was a large beaver lodge too, but the actual beaver was not to be seen. There were nest boxes for the ducks and a huge deer stand -obviously it's private land and I shall have to find out who owns it if I'm going to go stomping around too often. Ghost Pond is very photogenic, and with nice light or early morning mist it would be awesome.

Returning from Ghost Pond, I almost (but not quite) got lost. Easy to do, and quite terrifying!

Sound for the day is the honking of Canada geese - numerous pairs flew overhead, while I was out in their woods, making their presence felt (why?) as they searched for a place to call their own. I'm hoping that we'll get a pair nesting on our own little pond behind the house. They've certainly been checking it out!

My favorite shot of the day was this beautiful red-bellied woodpecker who popped up at the feeder from beneath the balcony rail. Isn't she lovely?

Polk County, Wisconsin