Day 60 must be the most beautiful day of the year! Here are some pictures...

I just had to pull out the camera and get some shots, so I can enjoy the blossoms throughout the year.  Hope you enjoy the them, too...

The apricots are done blooming, and are leafing out.  I managed to get the peak in the background.

here's a view of Jim's house from the cots

This Rainier cherry tree was later than the rest last year, so we had cherries at the market an extra week.

Smudge pots line the end row.

The chimney has a cover.

That will soon be a bunch of cherries.  Beautiful blooms are everywhere today.

the mudhole...

These pink blossoms are from the Marena peaches.

Astoundingly beautiful and delicate.

The orchard is newly mown.

The wildflowers on the mountain are in full bloom.  Gus is having the time of his life out chasing scents at top speed.  He put in many miles while I was hiking from flower to flower.

He's on the prowl.

Native wild phlox adorns the hills this week.

Yarrow

Phlox up close...

We heat our house with wood from pruning the orchards.  It sits out for a year to dry.

This is a pretty big hole.  I don't know what lives here, or lived here last year.  It isn't big enough for a coyote, but is too big for sage rats.  Maybe the dogs enlarged it while trying to dig out the critter.  Or maybe a grey squirrel?  I'm not alone on the mountain...

these bushes make a splash of color.  They smell kind of like tic tacs.

This area of the orchard was  peaches last year.  Now baby trees.  What a beautiful scene.  The irrigation ditch is where I used to ride my horse for miles as a girl.  It was against the law for motorcycles to travel on the ditchbank, so we were safe from the bothersome neighborhood boys. 

The neighbor's farm in the distance is where I used to dream of living when I grew up.  The house doesn't fit 12 kids, though, so, Oh well...

Apple blossoms from the Fuji's.

This is the same tree from an earlier post.  Things are popping to life!

It is hard to get tired of such beauty.  These will be Golden Delicious apples.

And I love the new shiny leaves.

More of the delicate pink apple blossoms.

Pear blossoms are white, and are also out  in force today.

They are all wide open, just finishing up the bloom.

looking up toward the sun...

The earliest cherry block, with the mountain in the distance.  Being on the hill makes these trees ripen about a week ahead of the pack.

This is the very tree that started and ended my career as a professional picker... at age 14.  I was going to get rich picking cherries, so my best friend and I worked together.

To make any real money picking, you have to be good at setting ladders.  These trees are on the side of a deep draw, and it is not easy to get good ladder sets.  We made money, but we didn't get rich.

An important comodity in the orchard.  On wheels, as you see.  Truly a port-a-potty.

"The ditch," where the kids love to stage stick-floating races, just like we used to.

This is the big canal.  We didn't ride our horses much on the canal bank.  The horses didn't like the gravel.

Each fruit ranch has a water box which measures the amount of water usage from the canal. 

What is this?  Salvador put these cones in each section so the bees wouldn't drown in the water that collects in the irrigation system.  Each cone is a "bee ladder."  The bees are swarming around this place, their favorite watering hole.  If you look carefully you can see the bees using them...  Tricky!  

I couldn't get a shot of the bees on the apple blossoms, but when they were working in the dandelions, they were totally unaware of the camera, which was only an inch away.

These bees are happy and focussed.

Work, work, work, collecting pollen.

These pictures have nothing to do with my project, but they have a lot to do with my mood!  A good mood is a good thing.