The Hawthorn is flowering profusely all around us. 
I tried to bring a few branches in the RV but the smell is quite unpleasant, faintly reminding of cat-pee, and it gave me a headache as well so it's sitting prettily on the picnic table outside now.

This idyllic scene in one of the neighbor's meadows is what living 'rural' is all about, a big red barn, a nice green pasture and a hole bunch of the cutest new calves:

This is cattle farming as it used to be, and still should be, the calves staying with their mamas and daddy peacefully grazing amongst them ...                                                                 




These lilacs are growing wild along the road and since they've never been pruned their flowers are high up in the air, packing quite a punch against that blue sky ...

                                                

I used my zoom to figure out what was fluttering around the flowers and found dozens of butterflies getting drunk on the nectar. No wonder they flutter so erratic! 

It's highly effective at evading predators though .. so hey, whatever it takes, drunk or not, it works.

                                                                   

The weather has been nice all week with temperatures in the low 70s, but today was truly one for the books!
And although we didn't get up to the 87F(30C) here, like they'd predicted, we clocked in at a respectable 82F(28F)!

Time for a nice big breakfast (Grand Slam) on the BBQ!

 

Chef James made some delicious blueberry pancakes, crispy bacon and perfect sunny-side up eggs!

Isn't that crazy? Breakfast outside (at about 9am) on May 3d?!

James had taken the AC covers off yesterday which was perfect timing because in the afternoon the temp inside went over 80F which means (for us) ... turn that AC on!
And although we could have had dinner outside we were so comfortable inside that we totally forgot about it! Next time ..

I'd bought some strawberry starters so I planted those out and I placed the plant boxes on a little table I remembered we had in the shed. 
Reason being ... those cute little chipmunks, remember the little ^%#@%! buggers from a previous post ... have been digging in my planters, bringing up all my newly sowed seeds!
I'd already added bird netting around the caches, which only took them one night to chew right through, but I hope by elevating them they won't be able to get in.

I placed those two planters in the foreground, where my tomatoes will go, on some upside down pots for the same reason. We'll see ...

                                           

                                          

These herbs, sage, rosemary and curly parsley, have been doing fine all winter and are starting to make new leaves ... so weird, some things won't grow at all and others go gangbusters! I'll never figure it out!

And look who is back!

They're already getting loud at night! 
Fortunately I'm deaf and James uses earplugs but sjeez .. isn't nature wonderful?

Talking about being deaf ... these arrived for me this week:

                                         

I'd been to the optometrist 2 weeks ago for a hearing test and consultations and surprise, surprise, I'm moderately deaf.
No surprise there because I'd noticed that myself already for a long while, but now medicare has kicked in my insurance will pay for part of them, so it was time to get some 'real' ones instead of the cheap OTC aids I'd bought from Temu.
(And yes, I bought some better ones secondhand from E-bay 2 years ago, Eargos, but they've died since than.)

Any-who, after extensive research, I bought hearing aids from the two different brands I think will be the best for me and will test them both.
They both have a 40 day free test-period after which you can return them for a full refund so hopefully that will work. Well see ...