Announcing the Arrival of Spring!

We had two warm days in a row and all the snow is finally melted, so I think that it's safe to say that spring has arrived up here in the Great Northern Woods. Well, the residential part anyway. I can't speak for the actual North-Northern Woods...

My mom planted a bunch of tulips to celebrate but apparently the wildlife finds them delectable. The squirrels ate the tulips with the shorter stems and buried the tops in the dirt (presumably to save them for later). Then the deer came and ate the tulips that had managed to evade the squirrels. The deer eat her hostas as well. Some summer nights when the full moon is out and I can't sleep I look out the window to see a herd of deer in the front lawn, bathed in moonlight, munching on hostas and tulip petals. In winter they get to our house by walking across the frozen Bear Lake, but I'm not sure how they get here in the summer. Same with the foxes and the coyotes... I just don't know where they come from. I don't remember having a lot of wildlife around here in the past and now all of a sudden there are bobcats frolicking on the streets.

Environmentally speaking, I'm not sure if this is a good thing. I'm pretty sure that when animals show up in residential areas (even ones with lots of trees :-) ) it means that they're being pushed out of their natural habitats. But at least we don't have bears here. I wouldn't want to wake up and see a bear snacking on the tulips in the garden.