It's Spring again! Joining the early cherry trees that are now flowering everywhere, this little pear in our landlord's yard is blossoming as well.

Little spring flowers in the meadows are a sure sign of the weather warming up, like these Western Buttercups:

                                              

Due to the mild weather there's a lot of Purple Dead-nettle already:

Maybe this is the year I'll collect a bunch and make  salve, it's supposed to be anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal and antibacterial and can be used on cuts and wounds to help stop the bleeding. Historically, it was even used to alleviate joint pain.

           

The Weeping (white) Willows I photographed a couple of weeks ago are showing their yellow catkins, which by the way appear on separate male and female trees.

 

Male catkins are 2” long and somewhat showy, having tiny flowers with yellowish anthers and two stamens. Female catkins are smaller and non-showy, with greenish flowers.
I suppose these are both male trees?

                                                                      

The first purple flowers of Vinca (Periwinkle) are popping up as well near the spring in the bottom field. They love wet feet ..

I finally got a shot of one of the local squirrels. I'd seen them 'squirreling' around out of the corner of my eye once or twice but didn't really cross their paths until now.



It's an Eastern Fox Squirrel, intentionally introduced to urban areas in the early 1920s as pets and watchable wildlife, but rapidly becoming the most common backyard squirrel in the Portland area and believed to have contributed to the decline of native squirrel species.

So .. an imposter! But such a cute one!

                                                

Being notorious for willy-nilly burying their winter-stash of acorns and than forget about them I was happy to see that this one DID remember!
For some reason they still haven't found the peanuts I set out for them?
                                          
                        

James, with a little help from me, myself and I, has been 'making hay while the sun shines' and first put a primer on the shed/office:

Followed by the first of two finish-coats of 'Hunter' green:

                                                                 

Just in time for the rain to arrive on Thursday!

Or actually, just in time for his medical appointment on Thursday, I should say!
Turning 65 and all signed up for Medicare, he is having a whole bunch of preventive stuff done now it's covered by his insurance.
He already had a physical (all good) and routine blood-work (slightly higher cholesterol but most likely improvable by watching what he eats a little better), PSA (prostate-cancer test) was totally fine as well, a coronary calcium scan of his heart (no deposits at all), an eye exam (only slightly worse) and new glasses, and last Wednesday it was time for a Colonoscopy!

        

Not the nicest of all exams but a lot less 'intense' than it used to be. The 2 days of prepping are the worst, but he thought it wasn't bad at all and according to him the actual procedure was a breeze.
The fact that nowadays they put you under for about 15 minutes is probably a game-changer!

Nothing untoward was found and he doesn't have to worry about having another one done for 10 years which apparently not too many people are advised to do, especially in his age-group.
I guess, he now can brag like 'Maxine':

There's one more appointment left on the books, this time for the dermatologist.
He has a few moles and spots he wants to have checked out. Skin cancer is a bitch, better safe than sorry!