with an eye toward spring

No, I'm not rushing the seasons. Yes I know we're not even in the middle of February. Sure there will be cold days before winter officially ends. Heck, there was a frost in May last year.

Still, it surely feels wonderful to wake up to a sunny day and to watch the temperatures hover near the 40F (just over 4C) mark!

So I wont call today's farmhouse cleaning a Sunday ritual, I'll call it spring cleaning!

A late, sunny breakfast.






And then I ask Ed -- do you want to do some spring yard work?

No, I don't mean the real clean up stuff that happens when the ground thaws. But there are late winter things we can do. Pruning for example.





And yes, that's Ed feeling perfectly comfortable in shorts. (I do not understand his internal temperature regulation, truly I don't.)

I have to say, the wind is rather gusty, so it actually feels a tad on the chilly side. I'm in a puffy jacket and I regret not wearing a warm cap. So we don't work too hard or too long. A few limbs out front, a glance at the flower bed there, some talk of how to expand it and then we're done.

But rather than retreating inside, I propose a walk down to where the new development work has begun. We're still perplexed as to why the trees are being chopped down. We've studied the plans for the new neighborhood and the trees grow in what is designated as a nature area. We make our way through very muddy terrain.

They're piling wood chips from the felled trees just at our property line. We have no idea what they propose to do with them.






Oh, a deer is heading our way. She, too, is wondering what happened to the line of trees that gave her shelter as she made her way to our yard.






("Where are the trees?")






She saunters off.






Since it's Sunday, there is, of course, no work activity in the fields. A few odd pieces of equipment have been left behind, but mostly the area is empty. Until we spot a red truck coming this way.

I run to meet up with the driver. We're hungry for an update!

He doesn't know much beyond what we already are seeing. He is on the construction crew and today his kids are along for the ride so that they can see the work that dad has been doing this week.






But he does tell us that he thinks that we can cart off a load of chips if we're hurting for some.

We are always in need of wood chips! Always. The challenge will be to get anything through the mud right now.

We return to the farmhouse. I have a dinner to prepare, Ed has some odd jobs to do. The sky is still cloudless, the air so very reminiscent of an early, super early spring day.





You can't complain when you're handed this prize in February. You just can't.


Evening. The young family is here for dinner. Snowdrop immediately hits her tea party table. Of course she does! It's been... four days!






But she can't be away from the epicenter of fun: the kitchen. And she loves tonight's foods! Asparagus! A treat right up there with cookies, croissants and raisins!






Lovely dinner...






(Sharing dessert raisins with ahah.)






Lovely night, lovely thoughts of spring.