Yes, it’s a picture of snow. This was a late snow, that didn’t quite make it over the mountain. I thought it was neat, because just on the other side of the mountains they got inches of snow. We got none, though this mountain that we can see from our house got some and you can see just how far over the mountain the snow was able to make it, not even down to the bottom. 
We rescued a late spring cocoon last year, when we read that sometimes they will stay over the winter and then be some of the first butterflies to arrive in the spring. So we were thrilled to see this little guy appear, after spending the winter in our butterfly habitat on our screened in porch. He is a black swallowtail, hard to tell through the netting.,
We have heard the busy nest making of this guy. Sounds like a jackhammer. Their former house was located next door, and when they cleared the lot for the house, he was forced to find a new home and chose this tree at the back of our yard, well used by other woodpeckers. We enjoy watching them fly over head in the evening. They have beautiful white markings under their large wings.
We have the beginnings of some wild blackberries and raspberries which form the hedge on the back of our yard. And we’ve also got a few apple blossoms that are trying to become apples. We’ll see, our apple trees are still young. We’re trying to wait patiently.
We rescued a baby bird that we found on the ground under it’s nest, which is under our deck. This nest was involved in a hostile takeover. Unfortunately, these babies didn’t survive.
However, we had success with our bluebird house again this year. Enjoying the family grow and then move on.
All the rain we’ve had has brought lots of turtles out into our yard. Everyone enjoyed checking the little guy out and feeding him from our garden.
Catherine
