THE STORIES BEHIND THE PICTURES!

We are starting the week off with the first real rain of the season.  We had a thunderstorm overnight and there are big puddles everywhere.  The grass is greener this morning and even though its a gloomy day, life seems to be just busting outside.

I wanted to start today's blog off with word about the new photos on my page.

First  the one of the dog and the lamb - is that not the cutest thing you have ever seen?  I didn't take the picture but I edited for my friend, who has a sheep farm a few miles down the road from here.  It's been a busy spring for her and her family as birthing lambs can be somewhat iffy at the best of times.  Sheep don't always automatically make the best mothers, according to my friend, Diana.  Because of that, they are constantly having to check the new lambs.

They have companion guard dogs on the property that are there mainly to watch the sheep and the lambs, keep them safe from predators like coyotes and wolves, but often her dogs really go above and beyond.

The dog in the picture is often found with a lamb in its great jaws, as he picks them up and moves them when they get away from the flock or away from their mothers.  And like in this picture - sometimes a cuddle and a fuzzy warm tail works too....

Diana's son noticed an Ewe without her lamb.  He went searching thinking the lamb might have died but instead he came across this scene.  He reached for his phone and snapped the picture... a one of a kind moment that would never present itself again!  How lucky he was to be in the right place at the right time.

Now on to my cover photo...

There are several things special about my cover picture.  The picture is one taken of my Mom and Dad the year before she passed away - it is special in itself - but check out that tiny bouquet of flowers beside the picture.

Those are wild Manitoba Prairie Crocus - Manitoba's official Flower - and my Easter gift from my Cousin Lorne and his wife Debbie.

Who has a cousin who stops his truck and tramps through ditches and fields on his way to Easter dinner, to find three little precious wild flowers that he knows will bring a tear to his cousins eyes.... I do!

I had actually never seen one of these before - but I have heard about them all through my childhood and beyond.  My Mom always talked about fields and fields of them when she was a child walking to school in the spring they were one of her favourite memories of childhood, and certainly one of her favourite plants.

I posted my picture on face book, and the very next day I received a email from my nephew in Calgary with a picture of some crocus that are growing close to where he lives.  I can't tell you how happy that made me.  I just love it when things like that happen...

These tiny beauties are disappearing from our landscape, like so many heritage wild flowers.  This year I got to see them not once but twice, I count myself very lucky indeed!

Such tiny treasures as these need to be protected and cherished, for the next generations to enjoy.   As a society we are loosing touch with these treasures at an alarming rate.   We need to do better... all of us... to keep these treasures alive for those yet to come.