Thanks to warm temperatures and a bit of rain over the weekend and this afternoon, there is only a tiny patch of snow left in our yard. I walked around when I got home today just to see how things were and was happily surprised to discover signs of life. The weeds were not a big surprise but it was nice to see some chives coming up - I wasn't sure they would make it over the winter in containers. I pulled the dead leaves away from the rhubarb and found new growth there as well. The beginnings of rhubarb always look very strange and primordial to me. A squirrel came to the feeder while I was in the yard. He got a little nervous when he noticed me but ultimately didn't seem to feel that avoiding my presence was worth abandoning the peanuts.

I was looking for something to write about tonight and came across this series of squirrel portraits in my "Blog This" folder. They're from a few weeks ago. The squirrel in question is about two thirds the size of the adult squirrels we see at our feeder and I suspect is still a young guy. He was not as worried about me as the bigger squirrels tend to be and let me get quite close as long as I moved slowly. I could have reached out and scratched his head. The wide shots were taken without zoom and show you just how close I was able to get my camera. The close ups were done using the zoom on my lens. My favourite things: seeing how a creature without opposable thumbs holds onto a peanut and realizing that I'd captured a tiny self portrait in those shiny black eyes.

Today was garbage day so as soon as I was dressed I ran outside to move our garbage bin down to the curb … and then I ran back inside to grab my camera because the world outside was all pearlescent fog and dew and hazy sunshine and I thought my sweet peas looked particularly lovely.