Catching Up

 I certainly didn't mean to let so 

much time go since my last blog post.

It's just one of those things...

OK.

So let's play a little bit of catch up.

We were told that our passports

would take between six and eight weeks

to be mailed to us.

Nope,

they were here just two weeks later.

  Opening the priority envelopes

made our summer plans seem more of 

a reality rather than just a dream, 

or wishful thinking.

 Spring arrived bypassing much of 

the winter we should have had.

We've had some rain,

as evidenced by this mud spattered daffodil.

These actually started blooming in late January.

Most of my daffodils are finished already. 

The ones that are planted in a cooler/shadier location have yet to bloom.

We've just had a week of wet weather,

with quite a bit of rain.

Not near enough to bust the drought conditions,

but every drop counts.

The lake rose 11 feet this past week.

It's still 120 feet below the crest.

We took our boat off the lake

a month ago.  We hadn't been using it

enough to justify the expense of keeping it

at the marina. We may wait a long while,

 before using the marina again.

It depends on  the lake level.  The 

walk down to the marina is getting tough

with the steep grade and knee problems. 

Of course we can still launch the boat

each time we want to go out.

Launching  the boat is not one of

my favorite things to do, but not using

the boat while it sits at the marina isn't

good either.

Right now though,

 this chore is taking up Rick's weekend time.

It's that time of the year  

for clearing brush and burning

 fallen tree debris.  

Our plum trees bloomed, 

drawing bees and butterflies,  

and even ants.

  

These delicate flowers 

of a double bridal wreath spirea are just a little more than a quarter inch wide.

The rest of the photos are from this morning.

The nectarine buds are showing pink color 

and ready to bloom. 

It's still six weeks before our last

average frost date.  If we do get

a frost we'll probably loose the plum

and nectarine harvest this year.

It's happened before.

Right now we are under a 25% volunteer 

water restriction. 

 We'll see what happens this summer.   

I'll have to decide if and what to plant

  this summer in my little garden.

Meanwhile the little Alpine strawberries 

are already blooming and setting fruit.

The moss is bright green on the rocks

on the hillside above our house.

After a few days of dry weather,

these will  be a dull gray/green again.

  

That's it for now.

Take care.

If a tree falls in the woods....

it's more work for Rick to do.