Spring Time

The girls got to work planting flower gardens today.

I then gave them the task of painting some flower pots, an idea I got while reading one of my sister's gardening books.

They were happy to work on the task. We are hoping to give our deck a major face lift this summer and placing lots of potted flowers and herbs all around it are part of the plan.

Spring Fun

Biking Weather

We hit record (or near) high temperatures today. It was about 75 degrees out. I had gotten the bikes out of the shed this morning and pumped up the tires. We biked to North Beach this afternoon just to check out the water. We were among many others who had the same idea. The place was packed, although very few ventured into the water as it was still pretty frigid.

The kids made a really neat sand/drift wood castle though. Chloe wandered into the lake a  bit.

Her toes became a lovely sade of red.

Signs of Spring

The crocuses are up! Due to an extremely mild winter the crocuses, always the first to bloom, are up even earlier than normal.

I hope it doesn't drop a foot of snow on them next week!

Spring Swing

Look it is 5:30Pm still light out and no snow, no coat, OK well there are mud boots, but these are the signs of spring

We May Have Made It

We may have actually made it through the winter. Today was warm enough to put Alexa's tomato plants out on the deck.

I then was able to rake the leaves off of my brave crocuses.

Don't they just make you smile? I uncovered the guys in the backyard too.

It is so hard to believe that they can still be popping up after a winter where the snow was so high it covered the swings.

There is still some left... but with warm weather forecast over the next few days it is fading fast!

First Day of Spring

It is finally here the first day of Spring. Not that you can really tell all that much up here in the North. There are a few signs if you look close enough. I noticed these in the front garden when I went out yesterday.

Sure they are still covered with dirt, leaves, and trash as the snow melts away and leaves it all behind. These are some crocus and tulip bulbs that the girls and I planted last fall. I love crocuses. These little buggers are the first things blooming just after the snow melt. I knew I would relish their color after the long winter and I am so excited to see them coming up. A few weeks ago there was about four feet of snow piled on top of them. There are other signs too that warmer weather might really be upon us. Spurred on by the sunshine and snow free sidewalks,

Alexa wanted to ride her bike today.

Chloe took Cabbie out for his first walk since October or November.

And check out Chloe's feet, another sure sign of Spring, mud boots. Bring on the warmer weather!

Temperature Changes

I tend to be a cold person, temperature wise. My feet are ice cubes from round about October to mid-May. I watch other runners wearing shorts while I am still layered up. I don't know what it is about me, but I just seem to think it is about 10- 20 degrees colder than anyone else around me. Today it was a lovely 75 degree day. I will concede that it was a radical change from the snow a couple of days ago. I can't dwell on that too much because I am already tired of hearing people talk about it. I have heard nothing but commentary on the crazy Vermont weather for days now. I can't stand it. It may be that I have decide that it was just a sick joke and chose to forget about it. At any rate today was a refreshing change. My children considered it summer.

Chloe begged me to get out the slip and slide so they could play on it. I relented and dug it out of the shed. It was then that I noticed that we obviously have some mice in the shed that had eaten a large hole out of it this winter. Fortunately Hannafords is carrying them again this year so the day was saved. I tried to convince them that it really wasn't warm enough for this, but they were determined.

I will say they stuck it out for quite awhile.

I thought Alexa was all done when she curled up on her towel.

Turned out she wanted Popsicles.

They wanted to make sure that they got all their summer favorites in today. Me, I'll wait for July.

You Have to Be Kidding

I woke up this morning to this...

I had that slow processing speed that can come to you right after you wake up. I found myself staring out the window thinking, what is it? I can not even tell you how depressing I find this. I mean I know it CAN snow in late April, heck I have lived in New England a long time. I have seen it snow in May before, but that doesn't make it any less of a shock. Yesterday, I was on the deck in flip flops eating lunch in the sunshine and today... well...

Some of us can't even bear to think about it.

You just hide your head and hope it will all go away.

To be fair I knew it might still get chilly at night. I even went so far as to toss an old blanket over Alexa's tomato plants before I went to bed last night. You know, just in case. They are now all piled into my office to wait out the storm.

The rest of the plants are just going to have to tough it out and hope it melts quickly.

Helpers

Don’t you just get excited when the warm weather comes? It makes you just want to be outside exploring. Alexa was in awe of the flowers. I have to say always amaze me as well. That they can spring out from under all that snow and ice with that first bit of color in the flower garden.

As the girls were entertaining themselves in the yard. They decided to undertake some projects. They collect greens to feed a bunny at Alexa’s daycare.

Chloe wanted to help out some birds by getting them started on a nest.

They both took to gathering rocks to pile at the site of Cabbie’s newest escape attempt. I was especially glad to see this as I haven’t had the time to devote to fixing that yet. They get really excited if they can do something to help me around the house.

That might actually hold the little bugger until I get around to fixing it!

Almost Spring Swing

OK, it is March and nearly 60 degrees. This is some kind of blessing. I got to shove the kids outside today while I made dinner. That meant I didn't have an art project of some kind to be cleaning up off my table/floor/couch (pick one). Obviously this is some kind of sign from the heavens that I have suffered enough this winter and lets just call this a wrap. Technically I only had to shovel like twice, since my kindly neighbor used his snow blower to clear the drive the last time it snowed. This has to be some kind of record for Vermont and I do realize that I have probably hexed myself and now we will have an oddly snowy spring. All of that matters not because look...

I put up the swings and there they are outside! In the fresh air and I didn't have to spend 15 minutes stuffing them into snowsuits only to have someone want back in after 15 minutes because they were cold. I am just giddy with excitement and I don't think that it is just sleep deprivation.