In The Pink

Even though today would best be described as "gloomy", the colors around here are more "in the pink".

The crabapple tree survived the snow..

The blossoms are not only pretty, they smell divine! (I wish I had "smell-a-blog).

This is our other crabapple and it too looks really lovely...even with gray skies.  The rest of the foliage is greening up.  Our temps this week have been cool, 40's and 50's, but that's OK...we're tough up North!  This month has flown by and I haven't posted very often.  Not too much happening around here except:

We have a bit of a water problem near the driveway entrance and some new tiles were put in with the hope that rain water will flow into the big drain near the road.  The jury is still out on that one.  We're not planting new grass until we're sure no more digging will be necessary. 

Our next door neighbor put her home and land on sale a few weeks ago and it sold pretty quickly. I suppose it wasn't any of my blog buddies that bought it, was it?  It's a pretty place with 5 acres, inground pool, sweet barn and fenced pasture and the nicest neighbors who will stop over with a plate of homemade cookies...just sayin!

Red winged black birds are back..I wonder if this is our old friend Sam who visited us regularly last Spring?

Last, but not least, I'll end with some more pink...or lilac color.  The lilacs didn't do very good this year but I managed to cut a bouquet last night. Again, some smell-a-blog would be nice...they are some of my favorite flowers and I hope to snag a few more bouquets before they are all gone.  May is here this weekend and I might get brave and plant some flowers....I need to see more than pink! 

Complete Turnaround!

I couldn't stand looking at the previous post and all that snow one minute more.  This past week brought warmer temps, a lot of rain, and melted snow...hopefully melted for the rest of the year!  It's been a complete weather turnaround.  My yard is very soggy and we're expecting a crew coming to put some new drain tiles in to divert the water to a culvert. We hit the 70's in the temperature department and worked outside all day on Saturday.  Windows and screens were washed, the lawn mowed and trimmed and deck furniture and the deck it's self cleaned.  Jack took some junk into town for Spring cleanup week.  At Church today we had Sunday School classes being held on the lawn and at the end, tons of little ones picking dandelions and making lovely bouquets to give their Moms. Everyone was mowing grass this weekend or working outdoors. It was hard to stay inside!   Since Tuesday we have had sunshine.  The weather folks say it's the longest period of dry weather since December...and I believe it!  Perfect pretty much describes this weekend.  As I was walking into Walmart on Saturday morning I noticed the garden section open and could smell the flowers and dirt...I just had to stop in.  I found some pansies on clearance and bought a few.  It's still way too early to plant anything here but I couldn't resist and pansies usually don't mind chilly weather.

The yard is snow free!

The deck was a good place for dinner tonight when the kiddos dropped by.

The path up to the Creepy Woods is greening up.

May Apples are blooming everywhere.

A tiny bit of green is starting to appear.

Chubbs is loving all walks in the woods.  He's feeling at home here and is eager to bark and defend his new digs.  With the warm temps it was a good time to give him a bath after all the wet and mud we had earlier this week.  Not his favorite part of the weekend!  So the flip flops are out and shorts and no jackets are the fashion once again.  Spring has finally sprung!

Speechless...Sort Of

SATURDAY, APRIL 9th...SPRING..I THINK.

Sunrise

8in. of snow...about an inch an hour overnight.

Deck furniture still safe.

Chubbs finding a spot.

No Chubbs, not there.

Do I need to shovel the whole 6 acres?

Crabapple tree..look at my header to see what won't happen this year.

Lilacs...goodbye.

Magnolia tree...so long.

Feeder is closed for today.

Country road take me home.

To a place I belong.

Breakfast with a magazine...yep, I'm speechless.

Everyone's Talking

If you lived in Ashland, the talk around the water cooler or the operating room today was the crazy weather we had this weekend.  I found out I wasn't the only one who mowed grass while the snow flakes flew...makes me feel a bit less crazy!  Sad faces and angry curses were talked about as it snowed outside today too.  However, it didn't stick on the ground.   Unlike yesterday.  We woke up to this view:

We were having the kids and grandkiddos over to celebrate a late Easter since we couldn't have them last weekend due to Spring break vacations and such.  I asked Jack if we should put up the Christmas tree instead!  I had him put a fire in the kitchen fireplace...first one all year!

The gang arrived around 2pm for dinner and also to celebrate Jordan's birthday.  He turned 32 on Saturday.  We had an Easter egg hunt all ready for the kids and after dinner the weather had improved considerably...all the snow was gone and temps were around 50de.  Heat wave!

See the difference? Lexi is hunting eggs without a coat on.  Her sister made me shiver however when she was egg hunting without a coat or sweater in a sleeveless number.

We grow them tough up North! Glad she had on her rain boots as the yard was still pretty wet.

Since we put money in the eggs it wasn't hard to convince the older Grands to hunt for eggs.  We had to tease them though because the youngest kids had found all their eggs first!  We had to help the older ones out! 

Jack and Jordan (with Evelyn on the side) are laughing at something....

They were chuckling at these two new besties....Happy, my Granddaughter Summer's dog, and Chubbs.  Happy was happy to follow him around all day!  Both are sweet, good natured dogs.

Cameron is pretty fond of Happy too!

After the hunt everyone came back inside to sing  "Happy Birthday" to Jordan and eat some cake and ice cream.  Not sure what deep conversation these brothers were having.  I felt bad that I didn't get a pic of Jordan blowing out all 32 candles in one breath!  I was too busy singing I guess!  All in all, even with the weird weather pattern we had, the day was great.  The sun shone and the snow melted and no eggs were lost!   Hopefully today family is talking about what fun we had instead of the crazy weather!

April Fool's...A Day Late

In early December I said I did something I had never done before.  I even blogged about it.  Well, today I did something similar that I had never done before.  It all had to do with the lawn.  I actually mowed our grass in December.  We had a very mild Fall and it needed one last trim.  Today I mowed for the first time this season.  We've had a very mild end of Winter and early Spring.  The grass needed a trim.  What's so weird about that?  Well, as soon as I hopped on the mower, the first snow flakes began to smack me in the head!  It was a lovely sunny morning...just a bit chilly.  It got cloudier as the afternoon came on and because we're having the kiddos over tomorrow for a late Easter gathering, I wanted to make sure they would be able to see the eggs we hide without tall grass everywhere.  So, despite the snow flakes I mowed.

I took this shot as the weather was changing.  After a bit the sun did come back out.  Then it got cloudy again and snow came on harder.

And a bit more windy.

See the flakes?  It was the first time I watched snow fall and smelled freshly mowed grass at the same time.  The weather got weirder all day long..sun, clouds, rain, snow, and even thunder.  Jack had a Church meeting tonight and when he came home he asked if I had looked outside at all. 

That's not a new carpet on the deck...snow.

No grilling tonight!  It's like a mini blizzard with high winds and snow blowing all around.  The temps are in the 20's.  I would say Mother Nature gave us an April Fool's Day joke a day late.  I'm not laughing...