It snowed all day long yesterday. A heavy, wet snow with big, flat flakes. Snow coated the bushes and tree limbs. It’s still that way this morning. We’re warming up into the forties today, so much of it will disappear later in the day. It’s actually quite lovely. Hopefully, it’s the last snow this winter, but March is March, so we’ll see. As it is, we don’t have to be anywhere and I’m going to let the warmer temps later today function as our “shovel.”

I’m getting restless for spring, though there are certainly things to occupy my time indoors. Deep cleaning and sorting and donating, for one. Painting, working on both of the dollhouses, reading (which I have been doing, but I haven’t been allowing myself big chunks of time with a book.) This is always a tricky time – spring is coming but it isn’t here yet. The weather gets quite warm for a day or two and you can smell spring in the air and then it snows a day later. And even when it does get warmer, there’s a period of time when all you can do is clean up the yard and wait. In this area of the country, I can’t uncover the garden beds until it’s safe for new growth. I certainly can’t plant seeds until the first week of May. But once it’s warmer, I can clean some of the siding on the house and clean the porch railings with a bleach solution.

Did I tell you that the roofers fixed our gutter? They even pitched the gutter so that the water would flow down the gutter more efficiently. Wasn’t that lovely? We didn’t ask them to do it, they just did it. The supervisor said “We couldn’t do all the work on the roof and leave the gutter that way.”

In these times, little kindnesses mean a great deal.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

The situation in Ukraine is on my mind all the time. Such heartbreak. Thanks to my Blythe obsession, I have friends in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. None of them want war. None. One of my Russian friends wrote that she is against the war but afraid to protest as she would be arrested and who would watch her young son?

I have no words and, frankly, nothing I could say here hasn’t been said already.

We’re in the midst of a snow event – it’s a mix of snow and sleet, so it’s wet and heavy. Don just went out to shovel a bit and confirmed it’s a pain in the tush. Our snowblower isn’t working, as you know, but our neighbors went north to their second house to take advantage of the skiing conditions and offered us theirs if we need it.

Sick of winter.

In the meantime, I worked a lot on the puzzle yesterday. It took me three days to finally get all the edge pieces in place. Yikes. Now I’m working on the puzzle itself. It’s about the mythical world and it’s really complex. The border design has also driven me insane. But the challenge it offers kept me nicely occupied yesterday when I needed to step away from the pure evil of Putin.

Two days ago, we had a murmuration of starlings on our property that lasted for over an hour. Gorgeous! I saw at least 20 robins feeding on our then snowless lawn. I assume they were stopping on their way north. And the little carolina wren was around the porch and flew up to the trailer again. All of that made me long for spring and know that it isn’t far off.

Though today is a reminder that winter isn’t over yet.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.