Sunday, March 10, 2013

Harbingers of Spring

Yesterday was a beautiful day!  Our temperature got up to 58 degrees and the sun was shining.  I made it a point to get outside in the afternoon to do a little yard work and enjoy the nice weather.

Mr P decided to let the fire go out in the wood stove yesterday and not build a fire overnight.  His plan was to clean the chimney and chimney cap today while the temperatures were warm.  This job is done once or twice over the winter months to help avoid the possibility of a chimney fire.

I failed to take any pictures of the brush that he uses when he gets up on the roof but it looks like an oversize bottle brush.  Sometimes the brush gets stuck down in the chimney and I'm forced (I mean that literally) to get on the ladder and provide some added muscle power to pull the brush out.  I do not do well with heights and even though our home is only one story, it's one story too high for me when it comes to getting on the ladder to get back down.  Going up is slow but coming down is just plain scary for me.
Good news is that he didn't need help pulling the brush back up the chimney so my chores were to use a scraper to clean the chimney cap and clean out the clean out box at the base of the chimney in the garage.  Easy tasks and now we won't need to clean the chimney again until next burning season.

While we were outside, constant gaggles of Canadian geese flew overhead heading north.  Their formations were interesting and their honking loud.  We took a walk to The Puddle and I snapped a few pictures as they flew high overhead.  Because the sun was so bright, I wasn't sure if I captured any but as you see below, I managed to get a string of them as they flew by.

My mini daffodils that are in one of my flower beds are not yet in bud but the foliage is up and a lovely green.

These green sprouts are the beginning of my "ditch" lillies or day lillies as they are called.  Being out and cleaning the border around the front of the house is giving me spring fever.  

On our walk this morning we noticed some of the lower branches on the crabapple trees we planted last year were broken.  The reason became apparent when we saw the buck rubs on the trunks of both trees. The second picture of a buck rub was taken in the woods on the way back up to the house.    
 

It was a chilly walk yesterday morning for my walking buddy and myself but today was even colder.  We needed our headlamps this morning for almost the entire walk.  It will be nice to have daylight last longer in the evening but I will be glad when the days begin to lengthen and we have daylight in the morning too.
I have the dishes to do from lunch and then I will be heading outside to clear more of the flower beds.
Have a good weekend wherever you are.
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