Planetary Verbosity

Spring is still a couple of weeks away, but we’re finally beginning to thaw out here. Much of the snow has disappeared from the neighborhood lawns, turning them into a somewhat soggy mess instead.

The same can be said for the homestead, where we arrived yesterday to find that we could see grass again! There is still some snow left, but what is there is melting and is the consistency of a snow cone. The weather during yesterday’s visit was great, sunny and warmer than it has been in months, so we had to get out and enjoy it!

Here’s a shot of the woods in general. During the summer, this is so overgrown that you probably wouldn’t be able to see much of the hillside. There are still some thorns here (lower right and left corners), but it’s not nearly as bad as before. I’m hoping this will be able to give me a good headstart toward thinning them out!

Here’s the obligatory creek photo from the standard location. It was looking really blue-green, and I’m not quite sure why. It’s a little fuller than usual, thanks to the run-off, but it’s still well within its banks.

There were some of the usual signs of spring emerging from below the leaves left over from fall. I wasn’t surprised to see plenty of Eastern Skunk Cabbage, as these are usually some of the first living things to emerge during the yearly thaw.

The daffodils are also adding some green to the landscape in the woods:

Shortly before we left, we also saw at least three robins singing in the tree across the road…the proverbial harbinger of spring.

All in all, this was a great homestead visit. While Dave worked on the inside of the house (still in the teardown stage), I cleaned up some more of the junk dumped at the bottom of the hill. We took a small wagon down there so I’d have an easier time lugging the stuff around…worked really well.

Speaking of working well, I also used my new camera strap this weekend – it rocks! I got it from Etsy seller rhembein, and it looks like the one at this link. I think it looks even more awesome in person than in the photos, and it’s much more comfortable than the strap that came with my camera. If you’re looking for a camera strap to replace the one that came with your camera, but you don’t want one of those bulky neoprene ones, go for something like this…it’s handmade, too! (It’s even machine washable, which is also nice.)