At last we have decent weather. A brief walk in the sun this morning. Awesome!

Oh, we have flowers. The first peony was open today! Lilacs are open. I've even seen irises. Fruit trees are all done. Rhodies are starting to be EVERYWHERE. And then there's that dog dam pollen. Oh joy.

This is week four of ten for Ultimate. Weather is pretty perfect. Spring flows in rivers makes for fun kayaking on the weekends. Decent weather makes bike commuting more enjoyable.

Nice looking boat! I built a Pygmy Arctic Tern 14. Looks like you built a stripper. Was it a kit or plans, or is it your own design? I really like rudderless boats!

Finally back on the water after an extra long Michigan Winter, 3 rowing sessions now in the 2018 books: A double on Monday, a four on Tuesday, a quad on Saturday.

Lots of blooming going on, too: My yard's already cycled through Snowdrops (February), rock garden iris (March); crocus of several types, squills, double bloodroot, Chionodoxa, Winter Aconite, Christmas/Lenten rose (hellebores) of various colors, early daffodils (all April); now we're on to a few kinds of grape hyacinths, Spring Beauty, Trout Lily, some Fritillaria, more daffodil varieties, and Dogwood. A couple of highlights from my weird plants collection:

This nearly black hellebore:



And the checkered lily (Frittilaria meleagis, in two colors):

Farback wrote: »

This one is my own design. I’ve built several, this one is my my personal boat after building a number of others I gave to my kids. Designs and build logs at my website farback.ca.

Very nice. If I want to build any more boats, I will need a bigger house. I've been enjoying spending time in an old Mad River Rampage (13' whitewater canoe) out on a mild river and back channel chasing the bass around. The bite wasn't on yesterday; I caught only one about two pounds. Saturday was slow, but I caught a couple over five pounds. Last week I caught one that wouldn't fit in my net! I have another whittewater canoe that's better for actual whitewater, and it's PINK. Yes, that means it's a Dagger Encore.

I was planning to go run a river yesterday in a whitewater kayak. It's one of my favorite runs. But my shoulder told me not to, so I cancelled the trip. Bummer. It should run a little while longer before getting too low.

I also have a glass 16' sea kayak, but it really doesn't get out too much. Just a few times a year, but it's a nice little boat. Lately it seems I'm either in the canoe fishing or rowing the raft. When I get that bigger house and storage, a drift boat would be nice as would a stable, fast, solo canoe that is less affected by even the smallest breeze like my whitewater boat.

We went from one of the coldest Aprils on record to one of the warmest Mays (so far). Late Winter straight into early Summer!

What happened to Spring?!?

Hottest May on record here too. June is not looking any better.