After our usual morning routine, went for a drive to enjoy the countryside, which is greening up with many Redbud trees and others in bloom.

As you can see the Redbud is prolific, and gorgeous.

Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) is a small, short-lived deciduous tree found throughout the eastern United States. Redbud is also known as Judas tree. According to legend, Judas Iscariot hanged himself from a branch of the European species Cercis siliquastrum. Eastern redbud is a strikingly conspicuous tree in the spring because it flowers before other tree leaves form. The wood is heavy, hard, and close-grained, but because of the small size and irregular shape of the tree, it is of no commercial value as a source of lumber. This tree is most valued as an ornamental and is extensively planted.
Native Range
The range of eastern redbud is from New Jersey and southern Pennsylvania northwest to southern Michigan, southwest into southeastern Nebraska, south to central Texas, and east to central Florida. A disjunct population of redbud extends from the Trans-Pecos and south Texas into Mexico.
Flowering usually occurs sometime from March to May and precedes leafing. Pollination is usually accomplished by bees. After 2 or 3 weeks, leaves appear and the flowers drop. The ovaries of one to several flowers in most flower clusters enlarge and develop into fruits that reach their full size by midsummer. Fruits are flat reddish-brown pods. Each fruit contains 4 to 10 brown, hard, compressed bean-like seeds. The fruits remain on the tree until after leaf fall; some persist throughout winter.

Love the country around here with all the hills, valleys, dotted by houses, small communities, interesting barns. (Note to self, take some pics of the barns!)
We travelled some country roads and a secondary road and caught these pics.
Driving the roads is fun as long as we aren’t pulling our house with us.

As you can probably tell these pics were taken from the truck. No place to pull over and stop on these roads.

Lots of houses sit close to the road, some even closer than this one.

Happy we did not meet anyone on this road but it sure is pretty and peaceful complete with this babbling brook.

This pic we captured just up the road from Dave's house on our way home.

We stopped at the woodworking shop on our way back to Dave's so Woody could show me the beautiful furniture and other items they create there. We bought an absolutely unique rolling pin and pepper grinder. I had never seen a rolling pin or grinder that was created so beautifully, 10 different woods used in the pepper shaker and 12 on the rolling pin. They really are works of art!

We arrived back at Dave's shortly before Dave got home from work. Dave and Randi prepared a BBQ dinner, spent the rest of the evening visiting with them, then catching up with friends in our favourite chatroom. Life is incredible!