May is big sky month. The clouds are more summer like. The sky cobalt blue. The vivid green of new growth sets off the every changing sky scenery.

Salmonberries wave in May’s gentle breezes. Another month from now their tart red berries will make my face wrinkle when I eat them.

Nature reminds me constantly that everything is eaten by something. In my hunt for where the ducks on the pond are laying their eggs, yesterday I uncovered new nests with a few eggs. And in thick growth I found a mother lode. Twelve eggs in a single nest, only all the eggs had been eaten. My worry about waking up one morning and finding several hundred ducklings in the pond evaporated. Some lucky creature is much better than I am at finding the ducks’ hidden nests.

Last night, on my last venture outside to check on the chickens before going to bed, I looked up and saw the path of a jet on its way west across the Pacific. From here, the Far East is really the Far West. Though if you think about it, no matter where you are, every place else is west of you, just as it is east of you. Or are you supposed to imagine that everything is west of you until you get to the point halfway around the world, and everything west of that is east of you? Something to ponder when I go hunting for more duck nests around the pond.

I enjoy May’s blue skies and puffy clouds. They make working in the garden so enjoyable.

Every year we witness this phenomenon. A windy day sends the cherry blossoms flying off the cherry trees by the pond. The blossoms cover the pond, making it look like it has frozen over. I suppose if I was a fairy prince, I could walk across the pond on these cherry blossoms.

There are many spots in the woods to pause and relax. Especially this time of year with the new growth and blooms. The fiddle ferns are taller than I am now. At the tip of their long stems, they unfold their tightly curled hands.

Why are blueberry flowers white? Shouldn’t they be bright blue? Then again, cherry flowers and apple flowers aren’t red either.

After much searching, I found the nest of the garden ducks. Duck nests are hard to find because the ducks cover them when they leave. With the garden ducks, there are just so many places they can hide a nest. However the ducks at the pond have acres to hide their nests.

The previous nest I found of the garden ducks had over twenty eggs. So did this one. Which means that around the pond, with five duck hens, there could easily be a hundred to several hundred eggs waiting for the duck hens to start brooding. The race is on to find the nests before a hundred or more ducklings hatch.

Six ducks at the pond are fine. A hundred or more? I shudder thinking about it.