Spring?

Spring? Could winter's icy grip be slowly releasing?

I think so. The stream is running hard as well as Miller Brook. The ice is trying to hold on, but I think the water will win.

I have found pussywillows opening up and that is a sure sign of the season to come.
There is bare ground showing in areas where the sun does it's good work.

King has been enjoying playing at grazing the dried up grasses out in the back field this windy day. I had my first ride of the season on Sunday with neighbors. We did a 2 hour walk along the roads. The weather fluctuated between sun and bursts of snow. It was a great time despite the weather and I am happy to be back in the saddle for the season. King was happy to have the company of good mares and light exercise too.

The poor hens were truly chicken of venturing out in the snow. After a trail was blazed with shovel and pickaxe to break through the tough ice the hens have made their way to "new ground" and enjoyed the first dustbaths of the season. So fun to listen to the sounds out there. Happy clucking, rushing water, song birds chirping and the wind pushing the snow clouds away. I do hope Spring is here for real this time!

Happy Spring to you too!

~Rachel

February

This is the photo that I'll call "Before". Here is one of our cats out on the big rock. She's feeling good in our January...ahem...February thaw. I think the January one was postponed as we never got it! We had only a few inches of very crusty snow and spots of the ground showing here and there too! Then we had a snowstorm overnight Wed. the 18th. And another several inches the next night and after that it is sort of fuzzy for me until I'm quite certain that we had the 18 or 20 inches overnight the 22nd. So here is our "after" photo. Not sure when this photo was. Maybe the 23rd? Anyhow, we had another foot or so yesterday so it's already not the real picture of what it looks like here.


I have been knitting still and here is a hat that I made from leftover yarn. Our guitarist son is showing it off.

I was finding some other great photos of the knitted objects but found this one to show of several at once.




Okay, the tall guy is sporting "turn a square" in wool, the boy with his hand on dad's shoulder has on a seaman's cap I made out of alpaca yarn and the littlest one is wearing a honeycomb pattern hat out of merino wool. The kid in red has a store-bought hat on, but it works just as well for nerf battles!
We find exercise a little tricky with several feet of snow out there on the ground (and it's too cold for the snowball type of thing) so we have enjoyed many a nerf battle this winter.


Here's hoping your winter is as much fun as ours!

~Rachel