Almost every spring I try to snap a picture of a bird singing it's heart out .. just because it's spring and the sun is shining and of course you have to establish your territory and impress the females ..
Just for fun I looked through some I made in previous years:

I guess I succeeded more times than I thought!

This time I got the Song Sparrow above.

The Song sparrow is well named as both male and female have a variety of songs that may be heard at any time of year, and juvenile birds begin to sing full songs within two months of hatching.
The exact song varies by region and individual, and individuals will often sing multiple distinct songs, but apparently they always follow a discernible pattern: two to four introductory notes, followed by a trill, and then a jumble of quick notes and/or trills.
This one did exactly that!

The shrub he was sitting in was full of buds which were very visible against that perfectly blue sky:

These little clusters of small, white flowers on long, green vines are showing up everywhere alongside the roads over here:

                                                                   
                                                                   

Which, according to my plant-app, is Oregon Big-root, also known as coast man-root or old-man-in-the-ground, a native perennial found east of the Cascades. 
It is characterized by fast-growing vines, spiky, inedible, cucumber-like fruit, and an enormous, deep-seated, bitter, and fleshy tuber that can weigh over 100 kg! (hence the name).

                      

I also looked for Easter lilies in the oak forest here on the property and lo and behold I found some!
They're a little late for Easter but since that happened very early this year they're probably right on time!

The weather has been quite good all week, mostly sunny, although off and on there have been some occasional rain showers. 

It's typical Spring-weather I guess, notoriously volatile and quick to change, characterized by a constant battle between lingering winter cold and incoming summer warmth.

Since the temperatures are mostly over 55F now, I've re-hung my bee-house (for leaf-cutters and orchard bees) on one of the sunny mornings.

      

When I peeked later that afternoon I saw that they'd already found it and had started laying eggs! So cool!

The warmer weather is bringing them out already and the fruit trees are starting to blossom so they're good for food!

I'm also starting to see some butterflies. This very battered looking California Tortoiseshell landed for a few seconds next to the barn. 
Only just long enough to get a fast shot of it. Butterflies are hard to photograph, they don't sit still very long:

Despite the (almost) summery weather I cooked some dutch 'stampot', a stick to your ribs kinda comfort food mostly eaten in winter with kale or carrots and onions.
This version is made with what the dutch call 'andijvie' which is impossible to find in the US.

                 
 
Escarole or Curly Endive (Frisée) comes the closest but if I ask for it over here I'm met with either a blank stare or they try to correct me by saying 'oh, you mean Belgian 'Endive' ... eh, no, I don't. You're sure? Yes I'm sure ... really .. sigh.
Any-who, I actually used curly lettuce, you put it in raw, which makes for a nice, crunchy, lighter, more spring-like dish.

And that's all for this week I think.
Unfortunately we're in for some cooler, and wetter, weather for the next couple of days.
Oh well .. it's only early days .. it'll get better eventually .. we hope.

    

It has been a beautiful week so far, in more ways than one but I'll come back to that later.
The weather has been great, very Spring-like, with several beautiful warm days, or afternoons I should say, in the 60s which, as usual, turned into clear, cool nights.
When I walked to the pond early on Saturday, the sky was blue, the sun was out and I found quite some people out already fishing along its shores.

I came upon the first Bluebells:

And a Red-breasted Sapsucker:

                                                            

Sapsuckers are named for their habit of drilling rows of shallow wells in shrubs and trees, and then lapping up the sap with their brush-tipped tongues. 
Many species of insects, birds (especially hummingbirds) and mammals use the sap-wells to supplement their own diets before flowers bloom. 

Easter, despite being very early this year, was especially warm, it got up to 74F (23C) around here today!
As usual we had a a relaxing day while munching our way through some of our traditional food and drinks ...

        

                                    

I made a cheesecake this year ... from a box! I know, it's terrible, but I'd been very busy all week and I just didn't have much energy left so 'Jello' came to the rescue with its 'no bake cherry cheese-cake'.
Oh well, it was good enough .. next year I'll do better.

In the afternoon we drove over to the Buell Grange, a 10 minute drive, to take a look at their Easter food and crafts market:

Unfortunately it was a quite disappointing affair, there was really nothing of (our) interest. 
We'd been there before at their Farmers market and weren't too impressed about that either so I don't think we'll go again. 
Oh well, it got us off our butts for a while and we had a little Easter Sunday-drive through the countryside.

As I mentioned, it was a rather busy week during which I had several important things to take care of.
The most important event was a trip to Portland for a visit to the pop-up Consulate of the Netherlands to renew my passport.
Every couple of years the San Francisco Consulate makes a tour to several cities along the West-coast, staying for a couple of days and taking care of the usual things you have to go to a consulate for.
Not wanting to have to go all the way to San Franciso, I had been watching their website like a hawk for almost a year now, hoping that they would come before my passport expires at the end of April.
Appointments are limited and go fast but I was very lucky to grab a spot!



First order of business was to make photos. The dutch apparently are very critical about the requirements and according to them there's only one photographer that makes the correct ones so that's where you have to go.
They only work through appointments so I'd made one, leaving ample time before I had to be at the consulate.
Everything went very smoothly so ... enough time for coffee!

                                                               

We ended up at Courier Coffee which turned out to be the cutest, funky place.
Their coffee is freshly roasted somewhere else in the city and is than delivered daily by bike (!), hence the name 'courier', to their little coffee-shop.
They've been around for a long time and have not changed much in their concept or shop in forever as you can see at the outdated decor and the music coming from an-honest-to-god authentic, ancient record player!

                         

The coffee is excellent though and the pastries, only two varieties, freshly baked and delicious!

                         

Their clientele is definitely of the more eccentric sort and although we're not quite falling in that category we loved the ambience and relaxed 'vibe'.
Not surprisingly these two posters were stuck to the door:         

               

Good for them!
We saw several businesses in the city that had similar ones posted in the windows.

Soon it was time to move to the main attraction of the day.
The building where the consulate had rented office space to do business while in town turned out to be an ultra-modern concept:

                                                         

WeWork is a global real estate company providing flexible, shared and private workspaces, along with virtual offices and meeting rooms for individuals and teams. 
Headquartered in New York City, it operates roughly 600 locations worldwide, offering tailored, turnkey office solutions with amenities like high-speed internet and community events.

                  

Again, everything went ultra-smoothly and before I knew it was all done! Didn't take much longer than 10 minutes! James actually thought there was a problem when I emerged so quickly.
I had of course painstakingly gathered and copied all necessary documents and checked everything about a hundred times just to be sure and I guess it paid off!



They even gave me some souvenirs!
The passport will be sent to me, which can take about 6 weeks, but if I had to travel for some reason I do have my American passport, so I'm good either way! 

       

We didn't stay in the city for long, I'm not a shopper and it was cold and drizzled a little so we weren't interested in staying much longer.

                                                   

We had lunch at our favorite Indian Place in Sherwood and were home before traffic.
The day could not have gone much better and I was very happy and relieved to have it taken care of!
It guess it had stressed me more than I realized.

Here's a nice sunset to relax:

Peace out man!

        

 

After yesterday's fine, warm weather, today is cold, overcast and windy, it even rained for a bit this morning. 
It might be Spring but Oregon isn't quite there yet!

 

I had to scramble to find some pictures to show for this week, I guess there wasn't much that caught my eye.
Here's one thing I that did though ... the Ospreys are back on their nest at the river!

 

 

                                                             

 

Like I said in my previous post they have some cleaning up to do .. maybe some weed-whacking?

Oregon's state flower, the Oregon Grape, is starting to bloom (left) and the Red Maples (right), always early, have put out their tiny, but showy, flowers as well.

      

And look who's back as well!

                                  

 

                                    Always a thrill to hear the distinctive buzz of a hummingbird!  

 

This lonesome male Wood-duck showed up in the pond this morning  as well.
Isn't he beautiful? Last year he brought his wife .. maybe he went ahead to check things out?     

 

            

And the little brown calf I noticed over a week ago at the neighbors has been joined by a few more. I counted four new ones!

Well, I'm afraid that's pretty much about all the excitement we had this week!

Since the weather still isn't that great it's not yet time to start any vegetables or sow flowers or plant any plants although I'm very happy there are a few that are starting to show some growth all by themself! Like my Rhubarb:

I was thinking about making a strawberry-rhubarb pie for Easter and it looks like I might have some of my first homegrown for that!
The raspberries are showing signs of life as well:
 

                              

And look at these (future) blueberries!

Otherwise I've mostly been reading, making my way through even more books than usual.
That, and some binge-reel-watching ..
It's terrible but it's hard not to get 'reeled into' doing this, once I start I just can't stop watching ... there's so much interesting, fascinating, funny stuff out there!

Addicted? Me? Nahhh ..

 

Doesn't that look Springy Y'all?
Which it actually IS of course, since Friday morning 10.45 to be precise .. 

I'm happy about it, but mostly for most of the rain to have stopped ...  I'm not looking forward to warmer weather at all.
If it only could stay as it is right now, around 60-65F, now that would be bliss!

                                                                                        

The Vinca I planted on the little grassy slope in front of the front door is starting to flower and I brought some daffodils and primroses back from the supermarket:

I also noticed that the blackberries around the pond are sprouting new leaves so I brought out the hedge-trimmer (best tool for the job) and 'went to town on them' to 'nip them in the bud' .. quite literary!

Once a week I walk to the pond in town, which is my longest hike, one mile to get there, 1 mile around it and one mile back, and used the zoom on my camera to check on the Osprey nest which sits on top of an old  telephone pole next to the river:

                                                           

It looks like the residential Osprey-couple that comes back here every year to raise a brood, will be in for a surprise ... 'honey, there's grass growing in the living-room'!
Hopefully they'll be OK after some thorough spring-cleaning.

Let's see, what else? Oh, yes, It's been quite busy on our little road all week.
Those big trucks? Well, they're working on bringing all electric lines, for the second half of our road, underground!

There's a whole bunch of guys showing up every day which is a big change from usually not encountering anybody at all. 
There's a lot of waving and greeting going on and there's one guy in particular who tries to stop me every time for a little talk ... there's always one isn't there?

It's OK and you can say it adds a little interest to my walk, but I'm going to be happy when they're done .. I know, 'bah-humbug!'... I'm so not social.

I almost forgot .. it was St Patrick's day on Tuesday. As usual, I made corned beef with all the fixings:

I was tickled pink to find a 'point cut' this year at Safeway! In previous years I always had to make do with a 'flat' cut since nobody would carry the 'point' which is a much leaner cut and only half as tasty!
I guess most people want leaner meat/food these days but believe me they miss out on the deliciousness of a fattier meat. It's so much more tender and flavorful, it melts in your mouth!
And since we've stopped eating meat, with only the very occasional exception, I think we're going to be just fine.

Of course I also took the opportunity to bake some Irish Soda-bread. I split the dough in two and added raisins to one of them:

As usual ... delicious (with a big pat of butter of course!)

And how about some cuteness overload:

On my way into town, just out of the gate,  I heard a cow mooing loudly in the meadow next door . After locating her, half hidden under some low trees/shrubs, I saw the reason why ..

     

She had a baby! I was just a minute to late to see it being born. She was already starting to clean it up ..

                                              

When I came back about 3/4 of an hour later, it was already up and nursing!
So freaking cute!

                  

Yup! Spring has sprung! 
Despite everything that's happening in the world, life goes on ..
 for now.