Spring Tease

The skies have looked like this off and on for the last several days...

...and the barometer must be way down because it's very quiet and just feels as if something needs to happen, but we'll get just a few moments of gusty winds and a few drops of rain and then it ends.

Even though we've had some really hot daytime temperatures, those aren't consistent either and NOAA predicts a low of 30F degrees tomorrow night, a low of 32F degrees Saturday night and 35F degrees Sunday night with a slight chance of snow off and on through the weekend.  The plants seem to know it's not spring yet, with just a few green sprigs showing...

These are wild iris...

I thought I had smothered everything winter before last when I had my firewood off-loaded in this area.  I had put a tarp underneath the wood and folded it over the top of the wood pile and only later realized this was not only unnecessary because of the low humidity here, but actually captured water under the wood.  We had such a late spring, with snow until Memorial Day, so I didn't get the last of the wood moved until mid-June.  When I finally moved the tarp, I had a bare "crop circle."  But it actually encouraged the growth of these iris.  This is what the meadow should look like later this spring...

The photo above was taken the beginning of June a year ago.  I don't know, since we stopped having snow so early this year, whether these will bloom at the same time this year.

Another sign of spring...a lactating, and ravenous, vixen...

She is so hungry she's willing to risk body and soul for calories.  Last night I fed her five chicken drumsticks and two raw eggs!  I think she was stowing some of the food because she would run off with it, but I could see she wasn't crossing the road south toward the creek and the den, and she'd be right back.  You can see the meaty end of a drumstick protruding from the side of her mouth below...

She's been coming around earlier and earlier in the day when the dogs are still around, so yesterday I finally shut Dixie in the cabin to allow the fox to come and get the food I was putting out.  I thought after the third piece of chicken she'd probably had her fill and let Dixie out, but the fox came back, appearing in the neighbor's yard to the west.  I just held Dixie's collar and told her she could learn not to chase the fox and explained that the fox was nursing and was very hungry and she needed to let her eat.  Dixie didn't even pull against her collar after that and I was able to hold her with my left hand and snap the shutter with my right.  Almost a lion and lamb moment.

I also, finally, got the last of the wood moved yesterday.  Here's the last load.  I said, "Hurrah!"

Today I got the recyclable trash taken to the dump and made this eggplant and cheese dish in the slow cooker. 

It has a good flavor, but is too soupy, so with cooler temps arriving again perhaps I'll get a good fire going in the wood stove tomorrow, put this in a shallow casserole dish and bake it the oven for a bit.

If you're still waiting for spring, how are you passing the time?  Teddee