Hello

 Hello, again! Looks like I'm in a regular poster of irregular posting these days. :)

Things are busy here, but with mostly everyday stuff. We had beautiful weather this week before returning to cold and rainy. We took the opportunity to start our spring bed cleanup. I leave most old growth in the fall to protect the roots during the winter, so there's a lot of cleanup to do. However, we've had a relatively mild winter except for some single-digit temperatures in December. It's always interesting to see what comes back in the spring. I hope some mums I planted last year come back, but no signs of life yet. It felt good to be outside digging in the dirt again. And as it always seems, the yard work stretches infinitely before our eyes this time of year. But it will get done, slowly but surely. Unless it doesn't.

Our car had some problems last week with wildly varying estimates of what it would take to fix it, one from a dealer and one from a local, trusted mechanic. Luckily, the lower estimate from the local mechanic won, and the car runs well now. 

And just in time because we leave on Monday for a driving trip south to visit with family and friends. We are definitely counting our blessings that the car trouble happened before we left. We will have a two-day drive down and a two-day drive back. It's been a very long time since we've driven that far for a vacation. Usually, we would fly, but the airlines seem to be having problems now, as well as rental car prices have soared, so driving won out. We shall see how we do. Preparation for the trip is well underway, although some things can only be done at the last minute. I have to work all weekend before we leave on Monday, so we've been doing everything ahead of time we can. 

I will post along the way if I can, but internet access, time, and motivation are still to be determined during our travels.

Until next time...

Spring has Sprung

Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while.  ~Kin Hubbard

This is so true. For me, anyway. I talk about the weather with my coworkers. I talk about the weather with Ward. I talk about the weather with Wally and Theo. I talk about the weather with my sisters. I talk about the weather with the library. I talk about the weather on my blog and other blogs. Anyone I can get to listen, I talk about the weather. Weather is the common denominator for all of us. Rich or poor. Big or little. Old or young. We all experience it, and it's the one thing we really don't have control over. So we talk about it as a way to connect with others, whether complaining or praising what is happening outside. And because I happen not to be so good at chitchat, the state of the weather is a good conversation starter. 

So guess what I'm going to talk about today? The weather. 

Today is the first day of spring. My day started with temperatures in the 20s; it should go into the 40s this afternoon. Cold, but clear. Spring is when I look forward to warmer temperatures and a burst of color. But that does not happen in a linear progression. A warm day. A freezing day. New blooms. Frost-bitten blooms. 

Here is a retrospective of what the weather has been like for the official start of spring since we've been in our "new" house - the first day of spring over the last several years - just because I like to talk about the weather. :) Note: In parentheses is a comparison to this year.

  2023 This year, most of the crocus are about done blooming, although there is one spot where they don't even have buds yet. Sadly, none of the yellow ones came up this year.

2022 (This year, we had no snow at all.)

2021 (This year, the forsythia bushes are about 1 week ahead of these.)

2020 Bluebird nest (No nests in the birdhouses yet this year.)

2019 (The crocus this year are ahead of these.)

2018 (This crocus is 2-3 weeks behind this year's.)

2017 Frostbitten forsythia (This year's forsythia is a couple of weeks ahead of this and is surviving the below freezing temps so far.)

Until next time...

Thankful Sunday

I am thankful for more spring blossoms.

Crocus

Crocus

Crocus

Quince

Phlox

Forsythia

Daffodil

Daffodil

Ornamental Plum

Look What I Found

 

The daffodils and crocuses are blooming! With spring officially just around the corner, I'd like to say the weather is great. But you know spring - can't make up its mind. Lately, it's been cold, snowy, and rainy, or what I like to call yucky. Anyway, flowers are here, with more coming. Yay!

In other news, I've been absent here for a while for no good reason other than I've been working on other things. I have mentioned several times my year-long project of writing some of my life stories for Storyworth. Well, yesterday, I declared it done and ordered my book. And not a minute too soon. I am ready to move on to something else. However, I'm kind of proud that I stuck with it. I ended up with 59 stories and almost 300 pages. Granted, there's a lot of white space in the book, but still...

Hopefully, I'll be back here more regularly, but now it's off to see if I can do something about this headache before I'm off to work.

Until next time...