Cherry Blossoms, Kroupa’s Tulips, a White Deer and More Old Mission Photos

Between a family wedding (in an orchard, of course, with cherry blossoms in full bloom!), my daughter and her beau being here from California (yay!), and me getting a cold this week (bah humbug), I’ve been shirking my Gazette duties!

But if there’s a photo to be taken anywhere, you know I’m there with my camera. Here are a few photos around the Old Mission Peninsula over the past couple weeks…

Kroupa’s Tulips on Center Road

Bern and Cheryl Kroupa’s tulips are in bloom right now along Center Road (near the intersection of Eimen Road). I had a chance to talk with them about the tulips when I took the farmer photo a few weeks ago, and they said they love planting and seeing the tulips bloom every spring. I asked how they manage to keep the deer and other critters out of them. They have to re-plant a few here and there, but there’s something you can use to keep the animals away from them.

I need to look into this secret weapon, because the first year Tim and I built this house on Bluff Road, I gleefully planted tulips all the way up our driveway with dreams of seeing them pop out of the ground every spring. Well, something came along and ate every last one and I abandoned hope at that point. Now I have new hope!

Cherry Blossoms

There are still plenty of cherry blossoms around the Peninsula, but you’d best get out here in the next day or two for those. After that, we’ll have several days of pink apple blossoms in bloom. I took the photos below last weekend. Most of them are of Johnson Farms, my family’s farm north of Mapleton, and the farm where I grew up.

In the photo below, the first building you see is the new-ish spray barn (as in, built in the last 30 years!), but the other building on the left is the big barn built in the 1800s. Dad had cows there when I was a kid, and all of us kids had our own horses. My horse was Copper, and I spent many happy days riding him around the farm and hanging out in that barn with him.

Pat and Deb’s Gorgeous Flowers

Here are a couple of photos of my neighbors’ beautiful flowering shrub – I think Deb said it’s some kind of Rhododendron. They have such a beautiful yard – it’s a good thing you can’t see mine from Bluff Road!

Mission Point Lighthouse

I haven’t had much time lately to hike the trails around the Peninsula, but one of my favorites will always be the one near Mission Point Lighthouse. I love the old-growth trees in that area. If you close your eyes, you can imagine what it must have been like out there 200 years ago. And the trail is great because you can do a short loop or a really long loop, depending on your energy level on any given day.

Below that are a few photos of the lighthouse and beach, and one of a white deer out that way that my friend Maura Sanders sent me. The photo came from her neighbors, the Schaeffer’s, who said a conservation friend of theirs said the deer is a “rather rare ‘pie bald.'” There was one spotted on Bluff Road a few years back, but I’ve never seen a white deer out here.

The water at Lighthouse Beach is pretty low right now. I wonder if our little trail going out into the middle of the bay in front of the lighthouse will surface again. That was fun walking out there, but it’s been … ten years or so since we had that…?

Road Construction!

Here’s a photo of the intersection of East Front Street and Garfield Avenue. I heard a rumor that it might be open as soon as next week maybe? I was standing at Bardon’s when I took this photo of Garfield heading down to Peninsula Drive. Yes, I got my first ice cream cone of the season. Spring has arrived!

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