Southern spring

See -- it IS spring down here.  Even the crab apples are in bud already.

The picture below is the crab apple over on the side of the house.  But check out that red-tip photinia behind it! . . . we planted a bunch of those to hide the 6-foot chain link fence along the garage side of the house, BUT . . . we've obviously failed to keep the things pruned!  The darned things that were under a foot tall when we planted them have to be at least 20 feet tall now!  They not only hide the old dog yard, they hide the whole HOUSE from that side!!  Not sure how the heck we're even going to be able to cut them back at this point.   Sigh.

The pasture areas are full of wild flowers/weeds.  Not a good thing from the horses' perspective - but rather attractive.  And I imagine they will go away once we begin keeping the areas mowed.   (That "stream" on the left below is a result of the heavy rains all last week.  It will go away to stay all summer as soon as the leaves on those trees come out.)

Mark and Jerry got the electric fence wire strung along the side of the property today.  Mark says they'll be finishing up the last two sides tomorrow.  Hooray!

Check out the grass along the back of the place -- the main part of the pasture that hasn't been mowed yet is probably close to a foot taller than that mowed path along the fence line.  And as for that area behind the fence . . . well, I'm thinking a bush hog is going to be the only way to tackle THAT space.  (That's part of that wide shaded area we left outside the fence to use as a riding path around the edge of the property.)

Spring definitely keeps Mark incredibly busy, so I'm not sure he would agree, but it is absolutely gorgeous around here these days.