In the past week our weather on Maryland’s Eastern Shore has gone from a frost advisory one night last weekend to ninety degree weather on Wednesday and high eighties on Thursday. Saturday it finally decided to be spring. For the past six nights I have been enjoying listening to the spring peepers. I do love listening to them. At my nighttime job I sometimes stand at the open bay doors to listen to the peepers and watch the sunset and stars. I have seen some incredible rainbows too from storms rolling through. Now that spring is here with the beginning of heat and humidity storms become something to be aware of and keep an eye on. However, storms are fickle here, many times they will blow a gale on the western shore and hit the Chesapeake Bay and fizzle out, or they start over here and you think it is heading your way but then it suddenly follows a river or gets blown just north or south. The water does funny things to the storms.

Today I walked a dog around a lovely neighborhood. We came across a large turtle sunning itself on a planter in the middle of a pond. I saw a bullfrog that was huge! It was three times the size of my hand. Yikes! The dog graciously and patiently waited while I took pictures of flowers and trees. She even let me take a few pictures of her. Usually she walks right up to me while I’m taking her picture so all I have is a nose picture. After walking her I headed to Oxford for some ice cream. Yum. And I took the picture of the pansies at the ice cream stand. The Scottish Highland Creamery, if you are ever in the tiny town of Oxford Maryland they make the best ice cream with unique flavors as well as traditional ones. I love sitting by the water and boats and enjoying my ice cream. Today I watched some osprey and juvenile bald eagles fly over the river. I sat there for an hour just soaking up the day before heading to my next pet sitting job caring for two cats.

I took back roads from Oxford to the next job. Passed by many fields of winter wheat, it is often the first thing to turn green after winter passes. Long before lawns green up the winter wheat is showing itself. I love looking at it. I spent an hour with the cats and then headed to get lunch. After picking up lunch I thought I’d take the long way home. I was hoping to photograph some bald eagles but just got landscape shots instead. It was a peaceful drive. Thankfully most of the roads around here are fairly quiet and people pulling over to take pictures, bird watch or check out deer are not seen as unusual. Just outside of Unionville there was a beautiful tree I stopped to photograph. It is lovely and symmetrical and has to be at least two hundred years old if not older. It stands out in a field all alone. I took some pictures of barns, one which is pictured up top. I usually see bald eagles at this farm, either on the barn or in the fields.

I came home, enjoyed reading and some interactions on twitter and Facebook. After dark I went outside to check out the moon, stars and I was hopeful to see the aurora borealis. Earlier on the week the sun let out an explosion that they thought may produce an aurora far enough south for me to see but alas I was not successful. Later I checked the website for auroras, it had updated and said it would only go south to the Canada US border. I have only seen the aurora once living in Maryland but I am always hopeful to see it again. The spring peepers calling was wonderful to hear.

Today is my Dad’s birthday. I will be listening to some of his favorite music and smiling in his memory. Well after this rather longwinded post I will wish you a happy and peaceful Sunday. I hope spring is here for you or coming soon.