We love Spring. It’s now our favorite season (albeit Autumn is a strong second). Here in the mountains of Western North Carolina, Spring is a three-month-long happy spell, where vibrant green is everywhere, you can walk down the street under flowering trees while their blossoms flutter down to the ground around you in movie-like fashion, wildflowers like the one above pop up all over the place, and it becomes harder and harder to remember that Old Man Winter was just here a couple of months ago (even this past winter that was harsher than most).
Over the past couple of weeks, we saw the return of two beautiful creatures that mean Spring has most definitely arrived: the American Goldfinches and the butterflies that hang out all Spring and Summer in the Pool Garden (our main garden that was once a swimming pool). In April, the center of the garden is covered in purple creeping phlox (matches our McDowell Quilt Trail quilt block), which is then covered in dozens of butterflies. The most we’ve counted was 34 at one time.
Our American Goldfinches head back our way at the same time as the butterflies. First, we hear them. They have a truly happy song. Then we see them one-by-one venturing over to our finch feeder next to the dining solarium. The males are bright yellow with a black cap. The homepage of our website currently has a photo of the most vocal and most social of our males.
This guy looks new to the neighborhood. Welcome, little buddy.
By summer, a group of 6-12 finches (depending on the day) rise and shine and eat breakfast on a regular basis at the same time as our guests, so everyone gets to enjoy one another’s company.