Photo Dump

Made it without skipping another week!  19 pictures this time, so enjoy!
Sunset on May 7th:

And then a whole bunch from the 8th, so until otherwise labeled, the next photos are all from the same day.  First one is a robin likely enjoying the not-snowy ground.  Then three all around the maple tree.  I had gone outside to see what my dad and brother were doing, and my brother says, "You should go over to the maple tree."
  So I walked toward the tree, and as I got closer I started hearing a humming noise that was getting louder and louder the closer I got.  I hadn't realized that the maple tree was so popular with the honeybees this year.

While I was laying on my back on the ground taking pictures of the bees, I could hear the tree swallows chirping nearby and sometimes they'd fly over my head.  So when I was done at the maple tree, I climbed over the fence and walked down into the ditch, and realized that the tree swallow pair was making a nest in the same location as they often have in years past.

And I could be wrong, but since a male red-winged blackbird had just been perching nearby, I'm pretty sure this is a female red-winged blackbird.

Then I saw a little chipping sparrow hopping around on the ground near the house:

Young leaves on the May tree:

Okay, that's it for the 8th!  Then we spent the 10th planting about 2 acres of potatoes.

Also on the 10th, I thought the very young leaves on the red stalk of the wild rose bushes looked pretty, so I took a picture.  And then I noticed the bright green of the young poplar leaves on the western tree line.  The way the sun was shining on them (and I noticed this same effect around the same time last year), they looked almost like they were glowing.

Also, I unfortunately didn't get any good pictures, but I sat on the deck until nearly midnight last night to watch the northern lights.  I think those lights are one of the most amazing things in the north, and it looked so neat last night, watching the green ribbons ripple over my head in waves, seeming to converge on a single point above my head before fading away.  So keep an eye out, because it sounds like we might possibly be able to see them again tonight!  God's creation is so amazing!