A Week of Firsts
I guess that new things happen every week, but for some reason my attention focused on a couple of events this week.
1. The wild asparagus is up! Or maybe I should say escaped asparagus — these plants are the descendants of garden asparagus. We have several patches of wild asparagus in the area, but unfortunately only one is within walking distance AND on public land. I may take a short drive and stalk some asparagus patches.
All Hail Euell Gibbons!
2) It’s tick season. We found our first tick of the year on my head Thursday evening. Merriment ensued. Tretan wanted to keep the tick in a jar as a pet, but he made his desire known too late. I asked him how we would feed his pet tick, and he suggested that we catch a mouse to put in the tick’s jar when the tick was hungry. That made me smile, but I think I’ll need to tell him about deer ticks, mice, and Lyme disease — and about dog ticks and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. (Don’t worry, Mom, I’m fine.)
This one was a dog tick.
In general, spring is humming right along. The robins, chickadees, and starlings are nesting around our house and the swallows are checking out one of the bird houses we set up. The juneberries and currants are blooming, and the hops are sprouting. Life is good.
I hate ticks!!!!!!! Creeps me out just looking at the picture! Otherwise, Spring sounds wonderful there….I feel like we have actually had a spring in Arizona this year, too.
I can handle most ticks, but I’m glad it wasn’t a green soft tick. Those give me the shivers. (Helen, you probably shouldn’t click on the link. It’s a picture of a soft tick in the desert southwest.)