March 25, 2008

Nothing is nicer then fresh sheets, hung out to dry in a fine spring breeze. Finally seeing some blue breaks in the sky yesterday morning, I decided it would be a great day to wash all the bedding. It would have all been dry too, if it hadn't been for a brief but very wet hail storm early in the afternoon. This photo was taken at supper time. As you can see, the storm cleared up in a hour and the sky was blue for the rest of the day. The laundry was nearly dry, and only needed a few minutes in the dryer.

Here are a few of the mushrooms in my ever growing collection. The dotted set are the most recent ones, which I just bought at SuperStore this week.

And finally, the magnolia tree is starting to turn pink. A wee bit later this year, due to a colder, longer winter, but hey, better late then never!




The slough and surroundings are still looking rather brown, but if you look closely you can see all the plants starting to grow. If you take a good look at this picture you can see some of the many ducks that make their home here.

The coop/garden shed got a very good spring cleaning, and the rabbit hutch, which was broken due to some nasty raccoons who tore open the old wire and stole one of the rabbits, is now repaired with much stronger wire. Coco, the rabbit, is happy to be back in his proper home.

'It was one of those March days, when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold; when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.' - Charles Dickens

Kind of says it all doesn't it!

'The first day of spring is one thing, the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.' - Henry Van Dyke

Now ain't that a fact!

Hope you all had a wonderful St. Patty's Day!

This is a band that Eric created out of foam. It kept him busy for hours. There's Benj on guitar and myself on harp of course, and then he also made a drummer, an organist, a singer and a flute and recorder player.

The other kids also made some interesting pictures.

Although this afghan looks like 'shoreline in winter' it is slightly different as it doesn't have much tan in it. This one is called 'Sandpiper' , not quite done yet, but should be by weeks end.

And finally, I have to do a wee bit of advertising for my favorite apiary. Serious folks, if you're ever in this neck of the woods, you should get some of Bear Creeks honey. It is hands down, THE BEST. You'll never go back to grocery store honey again, because it will taste bland and artificial.

Four more day's until spring!!! The first daffodil is nearly open, even though it was snowing off and on again these last few days. The day lilies and columbines are also starting to make a serious effort to show themselves. I planted oodles of tulips and daffodils in late fall and early winter, and those are all starting to come up now too! I have a list as long as my arm of things I want done in the garden over the next few weeks, especially transplanting. Since many of the gardens are now 4-5 years old, many of the shrubs and perennials are getting to be quite big, and now I have to move some of the filler plants around. Should be interesting to see what it will look like when it is all done. I'm still debating on putting bark mulch in this year, although by the time the plants fill out in late spring it hardly seems worth it.

Also, the slough was frozen over again this week due to the frigid arctic winds and we were able to get a good look at the river otters again. Kind of neat to see so much wildlife in the slough right now. I'll post some pictures of that next time if I can get close enough without scaring them all away!