Well, that was fast. I finally post for the first time in months and then Bam! it’s almost two weeks into April. Actually, we returned home from a wonderful road trip just this morning, so I’ve been away and distracted. But, I also took 500 pictures of Amelia in other states, so we have that to look forward to. We actually made our way through nine states, all the way to Iowa with a stop in Indiana to visit family and to celebrate my grandmother’s 90th birthday. It really was a lovely time with family we don’t see often enough. We spent a week in Iowa visiting my sister, brother-in-law and beautiful nephew whom I wish we could have bundled up and brought home with us. We also got to spend time with Artie’s sister and brother-in-law who drove from South Dakota to spend a few days with us. I miss them all already! The odometer was 3,948 miles higher when we got out of the car this morning. Time for another oil change!
We left Maine two weeks ago with piles of snow on the ground and returned to no snow, but lots of crushed stone dust from our driveway and gravel from our walkway in the yard. Blasted plowing and shoveling…one of these years we’ll pave everything and will skip our Spring ritual of returning misplaced earth to its rightful location (only to have it misplaced again the following winter).
We also came home to shoots of crocus, tulips and daffodils poking out of the above-mentioned stone dust in the front garden and sprouts of lettuce, radish and maybe some cauliflower which I sowed in our little hoop house near the garage last month. It’s still freezing at night here, but so far it looks like the hoop house is going to enable us to have an early crop of veggies – if I can remember to water it. I have the best ideas, but sometimes not the best follow-through. A good example of that is the almost-complete, unpublished post about our seedlings and hoop house I started a month ago. I’ll work on finishing that this weekend.
Here’s a glimpse of our hoop house. Pretty fancy, huh?
My Great Uncle Bob died peacefully yesterday surrounded by loving family. He turned 93 on Monday. I didn’t know him well and am sorry that we hadn’t been able to make a visit in the past year or so. We last visited a couple of years ago and he loved seeing Amelia. I remember sharing Sunday dinners with him and my grandmother who coincidentally passed away seven years ago today. Both will be and are greatly missed.
Lots to do! We have a busy Spring to come. But, take a minute and hug a loved one first. xo
