Wild violets...

I lived on a farm south of Murray and the wild violets were all purple. When I would visit my friend in town they had a whole lot filled with violets and they were mixed purple and the viola colored. I was so fascinated with the white and purple flowers and really couldn't ever understand that they had mixed colors in town and that we didn't. When I bought this place that we live in now, the purple and white mix is all over the property. They are like weeds among my ferns and in the city's undeveloped ditch there are masses of them which eventually get mowed. Things are really starting to green up here and alums are sprouting up. I have a few iris that survived that are kicking in also.
I saw a little Minnesota gopher last night out on my patio. My neighbors are trying to get pictures of our mother raccoon and babies that live in one of our old silver maples. They leave dry cat food out all the time on their porch for cats so the mother raccoon brings her babies up at night to the porch to eat. They say that they will send me a picture to share when he catches a good shot. We live on the edge of town with one house across the street between us and a farm field. The raccoon has come in to our tree and had her babies the last four or five years. One year she got one of my largest Koi fish from my pond, so I don't put my fish out until I know she has left the area. Thanks for reading....