It Is Spring Indeed

We had a week of rain, which saturated the ground so thoroughly that I had to pump out my basement eight times. Then came a night with tornado warnings, heavy rain, hail and high winds. The next morning I found the trash bins tipped over. That would not have been surprising except that they were lashed down and one was full of heavy bags:

 Then I noticed that the heavy, 100 gallon stock tank had been blown halfway across the north field. It had been empty, but stored upside down in a spot where high winds had never moved it before:

 A trim board from the barn roof had blown off. I worried about Amy, who I thought had been giving birth during the night. It turned out that she hadn't, so the calf watch continued into the next day:

 Last year I planted 12 Globe Thistles, but couldn't tell them from Dandelions, so I left them unweeded until spring. This year, upon examination, I had only one Globe Thistle plant - but it looked healthy and robust so I pulled out the Dandelions all around it:

 I planted the two Morden roses in the place where the Globe Thistles had not grown:

 And then I put some small fencing around the one Globe Thistle and two roses so I wouldn't accidentally mow over them:

 Inside the barn, the fantail pigeons and bantam hens were getting pretty stinky, but I needed to wait until the ground dried out a bit before I cleaned their rooms. I made it a point to keep their windows open as much as possible, though:

 The bi-colored Daffodils began to bloom, though the solid yellow ones were still in the bud stage:

 The Peonies began to emerge. All the old plants had white flowers, but I planted some colored ones both last year and this year. I don't know if any of the new ones will grow:

 The 20 Day Lilies, however, had doubled in height since I put them in the ground. They looked promising:

 I came to the end of my supply of bird seed and suet cakes, so retired the feeders for the summer. One of my last views through the kitchen window was of a Hairy Woodpecker and a Downy Woodpecker together on the feeder pole:

 The rock garden was springing to life. Things are growing fast. I still had a few plants which appeared to have perished during the winter, but most are doing well: