You Could Kiss A Lot Of Toads If You Need To Find A Prince

You can tell that Spring has sprung around here. Love is in the air. You can hear it all around you...toad's love songs. I hope that these pictures aren't too risque'. I guess it's not any worse than the Animal Planet channel. Our pond seems to be the rendezvous location for all of the area toads. I was amazed today when I walked down there! They are everywhere! There are trails and trails of eggs! They are paired up and several seem to be having a foursome. There must be a shortage of females. They were almost oblivious to me being near to photograph them.
After walking around the pond, my DH and I took a walk in the woods to look for morel mushrooms. No luck, but the wildflowers are starting to bloom. This one is a trillium.
Maggie enjoyed the walk with us. See her new tag that I made for her? By the way, I was going to keep Tootsie, but a lady that I know called and had seen the poster that I put up and had fallen in love with her. She is going to keep her in the house and will take her camping and all kinds of things that dogs love. I thought I would cry when she took her, but I know she has a good home. It's easier now with two dogs instead of three. On a sad note, one of my sister's dogs died today of kidney failure. She had been unwell for a long time. Maybe I could find her a puppy like mine.
After the walk, we took our little boat out in the pond and went fishing. I caught 5 fish. We let them go.

In spite of the beautiful weather, I managed to make some jewelry. I made this bracelet this morning. It is brass, faux pearls, silver-toned wire, and recycled beads from some old earrings. I kind of like the way it turned out.
Long post...long day, but fun.

Wildflowers and Pickles

Not much going on art wise these days. Everyone is keeping me too busy. I seem to be at the mercy of everyone else's agenda. That's okay, it's nice to be needed. I just thought I'd post a picture of one of the wildflowers from our field. This is a purple passionflower and it is Tennessee's state wildflower. The vines grow wild all over our farm. They make a fruit that we call a Maypop and my boys used to have Maypop battles with their friends. Oh what strange things you do to entertain yourself in the country. The flowers are very fragile when picked, but I got a good scan of this one before it wilted.
My next project will probably be to make dill pickles with my husband. They are his specialty and our family and friends have put in their orders for this year's batch. He makes them super hot with three or four kinds of peppers, including habeneros. The zucchini and tomatoes have been keeping me busy also. If you were here, I'd send you home with a bag of them.

Spring at Stillwaters Farm

The weather has been so beautiful that I haven't gotten to do as much art as I would like. It's hard to stay indoors. The garden is calling. This is a montage of photos that I took on Saturday. I would love to take you on a wildflower walk through our woods. They are a colorful carpet for spring. Each one, an old friend that I haven't seen in a year. I looked to see if there were any morel mushrooms, but it has been too dry for them. Maybe with a little rain we will find them before the deer do.