Easter 2014

Easter morning. The sun was out, the air was balmy, and the ground was dry enough to toss eggs all over the hillside. This picture shows about half of them. Every egg that Ursula could gather within 3 minutes would be worth 25 cents. She would need to pick up all the eggs though because there were clues inside 23 of them telling where treasure was hidden. One set of clues would lead her to Harry Potter books. Another set of clues would reveal where the books on cryptids were hiding. And a third set of clues would lead her to a real surprise...everything she would need to take care of a puppy.

The day before we colored 2 dozen real eggs and gave Jake a stuffed Easter bunny to make up for all the stuffed toys our last foster pug shredded.

Jake thought he should pick up the plastic eggs on the hillside and run around with them. For awhile we thought he might steal some clues, but the eggs weren't as interesting as his bunny and eventually he ignored our egg hunt preparations.

Ursula filled her basket twice in the 3 minutes for a total of 112 eggs.

Then her dad stepped in to help pick up the rest of them and her mom helped open them all to find the clues. Gregg commented that some eggs were "clueless."

To make it easier to read the clues in the proper order, out came the Scotch tape and a piece of cardboard...

Ursula asked for books on cryptids and I had to look up what cryptid means. The book store owner had never heard of the word either! (I didn't feel so dumb after that.) Next to the clues are three books about cryptids...mythical creatures that sometimes turn out to be real.

The final Harry Potter book took care of the afternoon, with a short break for making cupcakes.

This maple tree was planted after our home was built. When it was young, I had to prune it, but I purposely left the 2 lower branches that were growing sideways. They never did get used for hanging a swing, but they make great seats for reading.

Gregg went off to fly a sailplane for the afternoon. Griff went off to spend the day with his girlfriend.

Neighbors stopped by in the afternoon to chat. They brought their granddaughter who is a year younger than Ursula. Harry Potter was put away for a couple of hours while Ursula and Kendall had some fun together. For one of their adventures they went down to the pond. Ursula came home so muddy that she had to change clothes. That's a sure sign of having had a blast.

Kendall and Ursula in the tree across the road for which Griff built stairs and a platform. 

Spring Snow

Some folk have wondered why so many Vermonters still have Christmas wreaths hanging when spring arrives. It's because we either can't reach them without climbing over mountains of snow, or it's too darn cold to spend time outside taking them down. There are actually 2 marble steps at the front door. For some winters the path has gotten so high that we step down to enter the house.

To the right of the front door is a shed roof we put up every fall and remove in the spring. It keeps all of that snow off the large rhododendron bush. It's also a great place to leave the shovel and snow rake.

My bedroom window is on the right. I don't worry about pulling the shade down for privacy during snow season, though the dogs sometimes walk along there and peek in to see what I'm doing.

Almost a month later the beaver are swimming through thin ice as they begin repairing winter's damage.

Things are looking pretty good. The three ponds we created last summer have filled. The water is moving from pond to pond and eventually drains into the beaver pond in the background. It isn't moving along the path Jeb planned so he'll be back when the ground is dry to tweak the project.

Meanwhile, it just might be time to take snow tires off the car. I made a date with the local garage and...

that morning I woke up to 3 inches of snow on the ground! I had the garage put on my summer tires anyway. By the time I got home that afternoon, most of this snow had melted.