spring preview

Today was a beautiful day. It started out a little grey looking but soon warmed up and the sun came out. I actually took a short walk this afternoon and it was fantastic! The wind rustling all around, I could hear the dripping of snow melting, hear birds. The warmth was wonderful. At one point I closed my eyes and opened my mouth and let the soft breeze of early spring fill my lungs, it felt so good.

Right now 40 degrees feels very warm; give it a couple of months and it will seem chilly again. Amazing how we adapt to the temperatures so easily.

In addition to the general warmth of the day I saw lots of wildlife. Young deer in my back yard eating the garden....hmmmm....time to start mixing up bobbex already? Small squirrels busily digging around in the garden perhaps looking for nuts that they may have missed last fall. Unfortunately bobbex does not keep the squirrels away but they usually don't do too much damage. I also saw a woodpecker and a robin. It looks like some of the birdhouses are started to be investigated. I really need to pull down the martin house and clean it out before the weather gets too much warmer, I didn't get to it last fall and I do like have occupants in it. I also noticed that two birdhouses came down during the winter so we'll have to put them back up soon. And this year I plan to put out two more butterfly houses and see if I can attract even more butterflies than last year. It's going to be a busy gardening season, that's for sure.

Now I'm impatient for it to get here so I can go play in the mud. My mother pointed out that the way the weather has been going and the storms that are predicted pretty much guarantee that no one in this zone will be planting peas on St. Patrick's Day this year. The ground is softening a bit with all the melting snow so you might not need the jackhammer she jokingly mentioned, but it certainly wouldn't be easy under any circumstances.