Lilac And Flowering Crab Season

Our spring came late, but it came with gusto. A beef farmer up the road purchased my leftover 18 bales of hay, leaving me a rutted place where last year's 88 bales had spent the winter. I used the tractor bucket to smooth it out for next year. The grass and weeds will just be getting started when I cover it all again with a new winter's supply of hay bales:

And then the Lilacs reached full bloom, with seemingly every rural property boasting many historic old bushes:

 They fill the air with their perfume, so much so that one can often smell while driving down a country road. My front and side yards were filled with the wonderful, old fashioned aroma:

I was surprised by what seemed to me to be the early arrival of Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies:

I was indeed surprised, but also thoroughly thrilled by their arrival:

And of course Swallowtails love Lilacs in bloom:

This butterfly preferred the topmost flowers, so I used the zoom lens. I was pleased with the picture which included a substantial amount of blue sky:

My flowering crab trees were hit by a fungus last year and didn't bloom very prolifically this spring, but they did make an effort:

The darker red flowers bloomed earlier than the other variety, and I almost missed getting a good photo of them. I was just in time:

The Prairie Rose, named for obvious reasons if you look at the buds, bloomed sparingly:

But there were a few branches, higher up, which did quite well:

One last spring photo, taken on the highway to Massena, New York. Every time I drive up this hill, I am amused by the big tree on the left because it always looks like a dinosaur. That's my comical version of a leafy Tyrannosaurus Rex. It looks to me like Barney, eating a tree or telephone pole: