Rainy Days

With great optimism, I pulled the picnic table out of storage early this year 

...and then the rains came!
 



So far in 2011, NE Ohio has had the rainiest spring in more than 50 years.  I haven't been able to mow since Mothers Day, and the place looks like a jungle!!

It's also made me aware of ALL of the repairs that need to be made. 

 The downspout on the barn somehow disappeared. 

The full length of gutter on the front of the barn came down in an ice storm this winter and is waiting in the field to be re-hung. 

The gutter on my garage has a gap in it and the water is making a nice little rut in the grass below. 

Yet, Samson has taken it all in stride.  He doesn't seem to mind that a small lake has developed in the back field.  :-) 

And it doesn't look like the poor farmers will be able to plant anytime soon.   

But! I did notice something remarkable as we walked the back field last night...  glimmers of sunshine! 

Ever so slight, and yet even the smallest rays are a welcome sight these days!!

Hibernation's Over

Getting back in the blog mode after several months isn't easy. I don't know that there's any explanation for the absence... maybe just the doldrums that come with winter. This year, more than any in recent memory, dread came over me like a dark cloud as the oncoming cold weather approached. Just wanted to bury my head under the covers until spring.

So, now spring's here and the hibernation is over!

Seems the logical approach would be to blog in winter, when there is less to do outside and more time for the computer. I guess I'm a bit backwards these days. I'm just now getting back to blogging when it's time to plant, sow, weed, mow... ;-)

In any case, the spring rains have come and deluged our NE Ohio neighborhoods. The upside is that the grass is greener than I can ever remember. Oh, how I love the colors of spring. The small buds on the maple trees are a soft, pale green. My pear tree bloomed this morning with bright white blossoms, and the side yard bursts with the yellow of a fully-bloomed forsythia. Ahhhh... spring!