That being said... We moved here in December, when everything was dead! And while I knew, in my head, that everything would turn green again, it was hard to imagine the process of that actually happening. And yet, here we are! A few days into springtime, after a week of record temperatures. And, magically, everything is coming back to life! It's so CRAZY! I swear that I could sit out in the yard for a few hours and literally see things change, if I paid enough attention. For one, there's the grass. It's been brown, and frequently buried under snow. But now it's mostly green, and getting greener by the day! Our massive weeping willow tree has gone from being skeletal, to being covered in buds, to starting to leaf out in just the past few days. It has a greenish tinge to it that I am actually starting to notice as we come into town. This tree is absolutely spectacular... I cannot WAIT until it fills in completely!
We also have plants springing to life in the seemingly-empty flower beds in our front yard! Day lilies, I think, though time will tell. And I know that some of our seemingly dead plants out there are beautiful purple hostas, which will come back to life soon enough. I was also studying the berry bushes in our back yard. The entire back perimeter of our property (which is large!) is rimmed with these prickly canes. I noticed today that they were starting to leaf out, which inspired me to take a closer look. And I realized that there are two different types of plants, with very different canes. I know they must be berry bushes, but I wasn't sure what kind. And I was very optimistic, hoping that they would be edible!
Well... I posted these pics on the discussion board for my online mommy group. And the overwhelming opinion is that the first one is, in fact, a raspberry plant! YES!!!!!! The second one is a bit more challenging, and people seem to be torn between thinking it's a blackberry bush or a black raspberry bush. Either way, it seems like we will have a lot of edible berries this summer! Of course, they could all be wrong, and only time will tell. But I am excited to think about FREE raspberries, haha! Maya will be in heaven!!
Oh, and one girl on the board reminded me to check the yard for bears before going out. Yikes! But totally true. Especially if our yard is loaded with berries year after year. This could be the local bear hangout. SCARY!!!! Ack!
Anyway, it's been very exciting to see everything come back to life seemingly overnight. The birds have been chirping like crazy, too, and I am feeling inspired to get a bird feeder to lure them closer to the house. The varieties here are so much more colorful than what we were used to seeing in San Diego! Oh, and then there are the mosquitos... With all the lakes and ponds around here, it makes sense that they are around. And they come out in FORCE the second the sun starts to set! My friend Caryn was saying that most people invest in something called a Mosquito Magnet, to make their yards livable in the evening. It's a heavy-duty bug zapper. I think we will be looking into that!
But yes. It makes me very happy to see everything turning green again, and reminds me of the beautiful months we have ahead of us. I have always loved spring, but it seems to be more dramatic here! It is fantastic!
Oh, and the kids... I can't post without sharing at least a few photos of my favorite little people! While I was wandering around the yard, they played on the swing set (of course). At one point, I dragged some fallen branches off to the edge of our property, just to get them out of the way. And in the process, I uncovered a football that was in perfect condition! Needless to say, they had to play with it, haha!
And Nikos pretended he was in jail. This made me laugh!
And that was our day! Well, there were a lot of boring errands in there, too, but that was the important stuff. :)
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