We did a walk about after work today, just to see what’s coming up. There are definite daffs and species tulips all over the place at this point. The cats all had a great time following us around, though mostly they enjoyed playing around with me on the front porch deck, dashing around the sawmill that is still so uglily there.
It looks like the winter wind or something did a number on the trellis where one of the clematis is planted on one of the legs of the pergola. I think we’re supposed to prune this guy in the spring anyway, so I guess it’ll be okay. It was pretty worrying to find though! We sure loved them last year.
Frank took a shot down the well. The water level is up really high right now. Probably three feet from the top of the well, I think. For some reason the cats are fascinated with the well, and I have nightmares of one of them falling down the well. Before that wall was built up around it, we had it covered with a piece of plywood, which rotted, and one of our dogs fell into it in the early 90s. The firemen got her out, but man. I don’t want to go through that again!
The only significant snow left is in the very front of the house, out on the septic field and in the woods. Frank had gone out to spread ash from the woodstove on the top of the snow a couple of weeks ago, I think, and so I keep seeing really dirty snow and not remembering what it is. When you see how tall the frame to the trampoline is, you can really see how much snow we had out there not that long ago.
There are seedling little johnny-jump-ups that came down from the window boxes in bloom down behind the gazebo. Those things are so tough! I know some people think they are weeds, but I like them. I’m not pulling them out yet.
The red-twig dogwoods are looking very pretty. But it looks like something of the four-legged variety thought they were yummy. Frank found quite a bit of bare twigs, where the bark was stripped off the ends. Poor deer. It was such a long, cold winter this year that I’m not too upset.
The compost in one of the bins is looking really good. Frank’s pretty sure that we have at least one full bin, and maybe two, that will be ready to spread out on the garden as soon as they thaw. We need it! Right now, the compost thermometer hasn’t budged much above 40.
We stayed out past dusk to see which of the solar lights were working, and which ones we liked. I’m still unsure. I like the white lights much better than the yellow ones, but they don’t seem to be as reliable. None of them worked very well when it was very cold, either, which is irritating.
With the temps in the high 40s tonight, we even ended the evening sitting out in the gazebo with a glass of wine, the first time this year. Yay. Spring is here finally!