Signs of April............

This huge old apple tree lives across the road from us in my cousin Susan's pasture. She used to have horses who nibbled on it, but they're long gone now and the beautifully shaped tree greets us on every trip going out of our driveway! (Be sure to left-click on any of my photos and they should enlarge for more detail.)
This is one of dozens of redbud trees we have in the yard, and growing wild in the woods surrounding the house. They bloom quickly and don't last very long, but while they're showing off their gorgeous pink finery, we are blessed to have them all around every spring. They also attract honey bees and bumblebees, which are disappearing from the world at a terribly fast rate. We plant lots of things that will feed/attract insects, hoping to help their pollination routine which in turn will bring more trees, shrubs, etc.!
And this big froggy fellow lives in one of our goldfish/koi ponds at the side door! He's for you, Diane F. in Texas! (She's an online friend who loves all things "froggy"). We have a large assortment of frogs this year; a huge black bullfrog; some smaller greenish ones, and they are so used to us walking by and the cats drinking out of the ponds that they are not easily frightened. And more than once when I've leaned over close to the water trying to get a good photo of a fish, one of the frogs will jump into the water right under my chin and scare me to death! It's remarkable how close they let us get to them; so far the cats haven't caught one (that we know of!)