Spring Sneak Peek

In the last day or so everytime I glance at a weather report it seems as though it is all news about the extreme snow blizzards, wind and cold happening in the midwest and on the east coast. For the last day or so we in western WA have been lucky enough to have a break from our usual winter rain and have had some pretty nice weather.

I think this tends to happen in January on the west coast. As far back as college I have memories of it being very pretty for a week or two during the month of January. In college I lived in San Luis Obispo, which is about a 15 minute drive from Pismo Beach and Avila Beach. I remember right after the winter quarter had begun I would sometimes head to the beach in January to do homework and study while sitting in the sun and enjoying the sand and sound of waves. I would even wear shorts and flip flops with a light hooded sweatshirt. Washington hasn't quite had the warmer temperatures, but it has had the sunshine. I have to remind myself on these sunny winter days to enjoy and appreciate being able to go outside. In the last few years we seem to have hit a pattern of spending a few scattered days outside in the winter when it gets pretty like this. Usually the days are spent on some kind of outside project. I always find these work days to be so refreshing. I know that there is still several more months of grey overcast skies and seemingly non-stop rain, but getting outside on the sunny days makes it more manageable. The husband and I took advantage of just such a day yesterday by spending a good chunk of time on a few outside projects. One such project was to start laying a new pathway from our driveway to Bambino's kennel. We already had the flagstones and the gravel is pretty inexpensive if bought by the yard (or half yard in this case). This area can get kind of soggy at times, so a path will be nice for keeping our shoes dry and mud free. Eventually grass will grow up through the gravel between the flagstones.Another item I was able to cross off the never ending to-do list was clearing the dead plant stocks and vines from the flower bed on the side of our house. This area is beautiful once spring hits, lots of blooms. The cosmos I planted a few years ago are actually just starting to peak out of the ground. I love those first little bits of spring!

The last project that I thought I'd tell you about was one that was entirely done by the husband. My only part in removing a large and deeply rooted stump in our vegetable garden was standing by for a bit and snapping some pictures. It was actually pretty amazing to watch him use the excavator on his tractor to dig this thing out of the ground. It was in the area near where our chickens were until just recently. I say this because another project we accomplished yesterday was moving our poultry to a new and improved area of their own in the garden. I plan to share more about this in a day or so...it deserves a post of it's own.

Well, whether it's freezing where you're at or if you're lucky enough to be getting a little bit of nice(ish) weather, I do hope your week is ending well!