MAY 2015, ISSUE #168

Flowers, food, frogs, family, friends and fun – sounds like a fabulous month to us!

 

MAY FLOWERS

20150517Peonies  20150503Chives

From peonies to chives, May is the best month for eye-candy. See more at: May Flowers

 

OUR LITTLE FROG

20150503Frog  20150503FrogRock

Hangs out by our water feature, eating mosquito larvae and making a splash when we walk by. Obviously we had to put quaaludes in the pond to get this shot. Just kidding…

 

GOOD EATING

20150510Lettuce  20150523SquirrelFeeder

Plenty to eat for man and beast – lettuce from our garden and sunflower seed from the feed store, purloined by acrobatic squirrels.

 

FEEDING THE GENE POOL

20150513TadpoleRainBarrel  20150513TadpoleEggs

Not sure how it happened (do they perch and hover, spray the eggs, or what?) but frogs eggs appeared in the rain barrel off the back porch and soon hatched into tadpoles.

 

A PLACE OF BEAUTY

20150506HannahWhisperTube  20150518TamiFlowers

We love working at The Plant with all the pretty people and flowers.

 

HEALTHY, TOO

20150515Lunch  20150515LunchBrettJules

Rich in community, conversation and local food.

 

HONEYSUCKLE ERADICATION

20150516HoneysuckleFenceBefore  20150516HoneysuckleFenceAfter

The best time to go after the honeysuckle is early Spring, when its fragrance turns work into aroma-therapy. Camille noticed the honeysuckle was taking over our fence and Fred’s forsythia, so she went into action.

 

MOWING SEASON

20150520MowedLawn

Bob keeps the yard looking nice. The secret to a easy lawn is to give it a quick mow once a week.

 

A FINE FIND

20150527GasStationGeocaching  20150527CookieGeocache

Bob discovered a new game, and Camille discovered the cache. Geocaching is an addictive, outdoorsy game where people hide containers. Bob pulls up the list of locations with specific GPS coordinates and clues on his phone we start walking.  The phone makes a sound when we are close. Once we find the treasure, we open it and triumphantly write “troutsfarm.”

We noticed the more serious cachers use rubber stamps. In the larger caches (we found a two-cup container in a tree earlier this day) geocachers leave little toys and icons behind which you can exchange for something of your own. In addition to the note in the cache, you register your find online. Anyone can make a cache as long as they follow the rules at geocaching.com

 

ON THE ROAD

20150527VirginiaBldg  20150531Buggy

May is our “travel north” month, so we drove up through Virginia into Pennsylvania to visit family and friends in Amish country.

 

GARDEN PARTY

20150530BobDonna

We wiled away a few fine hours with our friend Donna in her pretty yard, sharing stories, snacks and laughs.

 

A FAMILIAR BIRD

20150530DonnaFlamingos  20150530CamilleFlamingos

Every yard should have a flock of flamingos, but especially folks who have lived in Florida.

 

COOKING WITH GAS

20150530BiogasBurner

We had a delicious dinner at Matt and Jenn’s, including mushrooms from the farm down the road sauteed with garlic and spinach on a biogas-powered burner.

 

DINNER AND CHUCKLES

20150531BrandonMomJoanna  20150531CamilleDarlaJohn

Three nights in PA yielded a little time with everyone. See all the photos on this page: Family Reunion

___________________________________________________________

THIS MONTH’S QUOTES:

“I still blame myself – for what, I can’t exactly say. I might as well condemn myself for choosing the wrong parents, or the wrong planet.” – Sy Safransky

“Nature presides in all her dignity, permitting us the study and the use of such of her forces as we may understand. It is when we presume to intimacy, having been granted only tolerance, that the harsh stick falls across our impudent knuckles and we rub the pain, staring upward, startled by our ignorance.” – Beryl Markham from West with the Night 1942

“Wisdom is not a product of thought. The deep knowing that is wisdom arises through the simple act of giving someone or something your full attention.” – Eckhart Tolle

____________________________________________________________

SearchBinoculars

The best way to locate a page or photo from past issues is with this handy Search Engine

PFA Banner

Get the back story via our blog at Plastic Farm Animals

____________________________________________________________

[Troutsfarm] * [May, 2015] * [May Flowers] * [Family Reunion]

____________________________________________________________