so it finaly feels like spring

the employee lounge opened yesterday, overlooking the pond below ... no banjo music, but the wood frogs were pretty good .. below is my first 'blogger video' i won't know how it works until i post this so we'll see if adding videos is something we can work on in the future.

wood frogs croaking video link here

wood frogs are pretty interesting little creatures. they live only in vernal, or 'fishless' ponds,

and can tolerate being frozen solid in the winter ... me too, but just barely anymore.

and the pheobes are back,  flitting around their usual nesting spots

very entertaining little birds

raked up in front of the shop yesterday .. still a little snow from the plow, 

but it should be gone after this weekend

kit is working on the wood pile.  fortunately for me, she calls it 'her workout, 

and i have participated only sporadically so far. 

and the laundry is on the line.  i even thought briefly about an outdoor shower ..

and after a long cold winter, we'll be heading out for the mail with the top down shortly.
it's gonna be 70 here today.

fish are out in the pond

the raised beds and the asparagus patch are bare ...

and the fog was lovely this morning, and
it was the first day there was no snow visible from the upstairs windows

what a difference a week makes

almost thinking about spring

 ok, at least we're starting to think about spring here ... the ducks came back to the pond on thursday, but after a cold but sunny friday, it snowed again last night, and it's in the 20's again today.  the ducks are frozen out of the pond until it warms up again.  it's pleasant today, but not like wednesday, when it hit almost 50 and the sky was that incredible blue.  springtime in vermont is something of a tease.  back and forth, forth and back, and on and on for a few weeks.  we should have crocuses in a week or two, but you'd never know it today.  click the photos to enlarge them ...

 

we've had daffodils from the store on the counter for a couple weeks and they are always welcome.

 but the back yard and the mountains are looking like winter still

 and then you've got the 'black and white' days like this one last week, where the only color in the picture is the stop sign ...

no color at all here

 but the barred owls are calling ... nesting time for them soon , and even though the pheobes won't be back for a few weeks,we cleared their  nest off the cornice return this week ... 

 yeah, it's as soft as it looks ... a work of natural art weaving for sure

there's wood to stack.  i'm outta here ...

march 17, and then it was spring

winter's over here as of today ... bluebirds are back in the yard, buzzards are back, ducks are back, 70 degrees today, the convertible top was down, fire in the sky, and it's only the middle of march. what next tomorrow? hummingbirds? golf? maybe on the golf, another month at least until hummingbirds ... peace ...
great sunset on peter's peak

Spring ! Robins !

He's in there ... CLick the photos to enlarge them

2/3/09

Kit alerted me to the robins in the apple tree this morning ... By the time I got the camera, there was only one, but he looked happy .... This would be one of our earlier robin sitings and the deer are starting to come in to the birdseed ... The days are longer, the light is definietely different, the air seems warmer even though I know it isn't ... and I don't think the groundhog saw his shadow here yesterday ... I'm sure we're not done with winter, but we're heading up the hill and out for sure ....

Bob, the cat, and the deer ....