Camp Creek Press

Our art class is visiting a different garden or nature preserve each week. Every time we visit one of these places I think of the people who work so hard to create and preserve them. A bit of woods, a bit of prairie, a special garden — so many wonderful (free!) resources right here in our own backyard.

Our own garden is blooming and growing, gorgeous with color, alive with insects, butterflies, birds, bees, toads. There are anthill cities, ladybugs stalking aphids, birds feasting in the mulberry tree and squabbling over birdseed. So much free entertainment! And when the sun sets, stargazing. There’s so much to do without ever leaving home.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

The creek flooded its banks and made a temporary lake behind our house.

The temporary lake brought a new temporary pet — a baby snapping turtle. With the woods and the creek in your backyard, it’s easy to adopt a little bit of wildlife, watch it, feed it, learn about it, then let it go again.

Last year we found a box turtle just getting into the road and brought him home for a couple of weeks, then carefully returned him exactly where we found him — except, you know, about 12 feet further on his way, on the other side of the road. Turtles are so slow, and pickups so fast.

For it was rather exciting. The little dry ditches in which Piglet had nosed about so often had become streams, the little streams across which he had splashed were rivers, and the river, between whose steep banks they had played so happily, had sprawled out of its own bed and was taking up so much room everywhere, that Piglet was beginning to wonder whether it would be coming into his bed soon.

Right now just about everything is calling more loudly than the computer and the blog.

There’s the garden, the landscaping, the toads, the frogs, the flowers, the berries, the clouds, the breeze, the trees, the anthills, the garden snakes, the kites, the lake.

It’s a rising chorus not unlike the peepers and tree frogs who are so loud in the creek at night we have to close the windows to sleep. All the glories of spring, demanding our attention. It’s absolutely deafening.

Soon it will be 95 degrees and we’ll retreat to the cool indoors every day around noon, and things will pick up again around here. I actually taught an art class this week (that wasn’t rained out!) and remembered to bring the camera, so I’ll have that to share.

But for the moment, just imagine the sound of the screen door slamming. We’re on our way out. But we’ll be back in soon.

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. — Margaret Atwood

And I’m not the crocodile.

So, I have a big project that’s just eating me alive. I want to share! But it feels a bit too soon. Soon, however! Soon I will share!

May is a transitional month. We’re done with the “school” year, yet summer’s not here yet ... we seem to wander outside at least every other hour, and yes, we’re working in the garden, but we’re also doing a lot of holding the porch steps down with our back ends. And drinking lemonade. Summer’s not here yet, but we’ve already had gallons of lemonade.

We are working on projects — lots of projects! But, alas, we are not finishing projects — not any projects.

There are road trips being planned — I can tell, because there are maps and atlases and guide books strewn around. But no one’s gone anywhere further than the corner, for an ice cream cone. (Summer’s not here — but ice cream is.)

Too much going on right now, yet can’t find anything completed and ready to share. Sigh. Ah well, soon things will settle down. We’ll get used to the warm afternoons and the bright blue sky, the flowers and the birds, and we’ll get back to work. Soon.

May is my month. Mothers Day, my birthday, and then my mom's birthday all in the space of two weeks. Plus, May has May baskets ... and the best weather.

We play it pretty cool on Mothers Day. Handmade cards. A joint present from my three guys — something for the garden.

Since my birthday quickly follows Mothers Day, and I lay claim to the whole month, I usually get a camping trip or a kayaking trip, too. My favorite present is a great memory.

So what are you guys doing this weekend?

Today's art class and picnic had to be canceled due to thunderstorms.

Yesterday, we took a little hike. The woods were filled with bluebells.