Finally it's Spring!
I thought the daffodils would never arrive.
They are very late, but welcome.


Today Henrietta brought her chick out to see the world.
It is the only survivor. Two others hatched, but did not make it.
The rest of the eggs were not viable.

After the kids left, poor Tommy was sad. Not as much fun without a kid to play with.

Finally Spring!

Spring is very late this year.

Our first daffodil began opening on April 13. It has continued to be cold and damp, and that solitary flower still has no buddies.

Some of the raspberries were putting out side shoots, so D separated them from the mothers. Now, where to put them, since no bed had been prepared. Ah, last year's lettuce patch! The little area is fenced to keep the chickens out, but the chickens think the loosened soil on the edges is just perfect for dust baths!

And a week before Easter, we made sugar cookies, or Spring Spheres as some school has directed they be named. (sphere???)

Plowed Out

We got plowed out at 5pm.
Since it was a snow day, that was not a problem, but it's always a relief.

Tommy is not interested in mud. He'd rather stand on the snow.

Car is all ready to go to work tomorrow.

Time to go home.

It's Still Snowing!

It's still snowing, but the chickens need to be watered.

D tried shoveling, but the snow sticks to the shovel.

He decided to forge a path.

The dog almost has to bound to get through it.

The snow should taper in a couple of hours.

But the heavy winds will continue.

It's Snowing!

We went to bed, expecting another couple of inches.

Snow day was questionable, depending on the drifting.

Woke up when school called at 5:30 so say it's a snow day.

The above picture is an attempt to look out the computer-room window.

The picture below is out the bathroom window.

These windows are looking east (computer) or west (bathroom).

The woodpile is buried.

D shoveled for a bit at 5AM.

At 8AM there is no sign of any shovel work.

It's time to nap!

The corner is not snow on the windowsill.

That's a drift.

Aargh.

Dill Pickle Picture

We can lots of things in the summer. For several summers we made tons of pickles.

When I checked my website stats, I noticed lots of hits on my dill page. Interesting. Turns out that several sites had helped themselves to my picture. They didn't actually "steal" it. They just linked back to my page. I guess I should be flattered. But I decided to identify the picture.
Not a bad picture, I guess.

Merry Christmas 2010

The tree is decorated.

Presents are loaded underneath.

We're at Peri's for Christmas Eve.

The table is set for dinner.

Menu:

Cream of Broccoli Cheddar Cheese soup.

5-Cheese Ravioli with vodka tomato sauce.

Lobster Ravioli with brown butter sage sauce.

Prime Rib with garlic grilled asparagus.

Peri does not eat potatoes, so dessert looked like foil wrapped baked potato.

It was actually vanilla ice cream with cocoa powder, topped with icing like butter.

Whipped cream and green sprinkles looked like sour cream and chives.

Christmas Morning finds us at Frankie's house.

The tree is loaded with lovely ornaments.

Under the tree is Frankie's new bike.

After presents, we enjoyed a wonderful brunch:

Menu:

Potato-Leek soup.

Cream Chipped Beef in Toast Cups

Assorted breads.

A variety of interesting cheeses and meats.

The ride back home was uneventful. The chickens had laid 18 eggs in our absence. Their water stayed fluid. The cat came in for a warm dinner. All's right with the world.