Spring?

Yesterday, as I went out onto the deck to shake out a dust cloth (yes, I do try to clean occasionally), I was greeted with a light balmy breeze.  Could it be???  Could it really be spring? It sure felt like spring to me.

 

By the late afternoon, I was antsy.  I had to go for a short walk to enjoy this change in the weather.  The almost 2’ of snow accumulation from last week was about all melted from the past few days of continuous rain. It was drizzling again.  But, I just had to take a few minutes to stretch my winter-weary legs despite the mud, the mud, and the even more mud.

 

I put on a sweatshirt to keep dry.  I tucked my camera inside the sweatshirt to protect it from the rain.  As I stepped out the back door of my house, the dogs immediately sensed what was happening.  They were going for a walk and boy, were they excited…overly so, I might add. We stopped to retrieve Snowball from his ‘lamb watch’ duty station.   Glenn had sold the majority of the lambs earlier in the week, keeping back only three for Becky’s Barnyard lamb (as in meat) sales.  So, Snowball was eager for the extra exercise and added interest since his guard dog responsibilities have greatly decreased at the moment.

 

Advancing from the yard proper into the pasture, the rain stopped. Yippee!  A short walk nothing…I was taking my longer, down-to-the pond walk.  The dogs concurred with my decision as they rapidly took off down the hill ahead of me.

 

The mud was thick.  The pastures were brown.  The trees were bare. The birds were vocal in early spring song. The dogs were carefree. The pond was overflowing.  I was content in my old routine.

 

 Life is good.

 

 

Today was even more spring-like than yesterday. I took a walk around the yard to assess.

 

My big surprise was that my small bunch of snowdrops, a definite spring harbinger,was in full bloom as was my house-side silver maple tree.  I love flowers no matter how small.  These two are always so welcome because they are a sure sign that winter is almost, if not totally, over - hurray! 

 

 

Another not-so-great surprise was the condition of the yard.  The dogs had quite the winter party dragging sticks, many sticks, of all sizes and just dropping them helter-skelter over the lawn and perennial beds.  Then, there are all the rugs, rags, bones and trash they found amusing, then deposited.  And, add to the dog debris the gravel Glenn plowed from the road onto the grass - ugh!

 

a sampling of the dogs' stick collection in a small fraction of the yard - the entire yard looks very similar to this section

 

I have quite a clean-up to do before grass mowing time.

 

Fortunately , life is still good!

 

 



Canada geese couple enjoying our pond