Hummingbirds, elk, cattle drive, and spring finally here

Normal busy things in our little part of the world. Finally, finally aspen are starting to pop out (late snow delayed everything) and the first wildflowers emerging.

Slowed to a crawl by a normal spring occurrence(1,000 head cattle drive) on my way into town I realized how small a world it is here when one of the cowboys I passed was "our" cattle rancher. He'll be putting his steers in Star Mt. within a few weeks. Our summer visitors.

The hummingbirds are back with a vengeance. Big Boy feeders have come back out. Let the boiling of sugar water commence!

These photos are a little unusual I know. That's Mark on a borrowed Bobcat working on our driveway that was pommeled over the winter. Our gravel flung everywhere but where it belongs. Will he want one?

elk with changeover raggedy winter coats

A LOT of elk tracks in the neighborhood

Elk are out grazing everyday wandering all over. If you remember they come back every year to have their babies in our woods in June. Fantastic how our wildlife sticks to a pattern.

Great time with company at our house last night serving, drumroll please, Shrimp  Paesano. The famous, don't need to know fat and calorie, special maybe twice a year dish. They'd all had it at the restaurant at one time or another, so  the anticipation was great and the pressure to produce great also. Of course Mark got rave reviews. Sorry you all missed it...

Couple books read, Under Magnolia by Frances Mayes. Great second memoir  of her southern childhood (first was Under the Tuscan Sun you might know) and A Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny, another in her great Canadian mystery series.