It IS spring, it really is!

There are just the tiniest leaves on the poplar trees in Hawkeye.  Everyone else has full-blown leaves but I'll settle for ours.  The tamaracks are starting to green up as well and my daffodils are in bloom like crazy.  Primroses are in bloom too but not much else going on.  That's OK, May is a joyous time of daily advances.

I'm still volunteering at the thrift store two days a week and this morning was one of those days.  Wow it was busy.  Wednesday was the same--partly because the regulars in Receiving are out for a couple/few weeks and partly because it's SPRING and the sun is shining so people are cleaning.  Many many shoppers and many many droppers.  I can't do the whole 5 hours the store is open, I do 3 1/2 hours and head out.  I feel guilty leaving but I just can't do that many hours on my feet.  I never had a job that demanded that kind of physical activity, I mostly sat on my butt all my working years. 

I've been walking outside with my gym friend, she lives near here and there are nice walks by her house and by mine.  The lucky dogs get to join us and they run and run and run.  This morning we walked in 31 degrees, up from the 29 it was when I got up.  Another frosty morning predicted for tomorrow.

The sun is warm.  Grass is not green but that's good because I'm not in a mowing mood.  I should be outside cleaning up the yard but I'm sitting in the living room resting.  I usually feel mildly depressed in the spring, always in April.  I forgot to do that this April but yesterday had a very blue day.  I slept and slept, then went to bed and slept some more.  Today I feel much better so maybe it wasn't really depression.  If that's what I want.

I'm off to Rhode Island on Friday for Mark's 60th birthday and a few days with my mother.  Looking forward to that--she says the dogwood is in bloom, some of the rhododendrons are still blooming.  I'll do some plant shopping while I'm there, it's a little early based on weather here.  I did get violas, not my usual pansies, but haven't started laying in supplies for my deck pots yet.  It's too cold!

Big drama, BIG BIG drama

We had a storm here Friday night, a big wind storm.  We even had a tornado watch to match it, which unnerved me a bit.  I grew up in tornado country so that sort of thing frightens me.  The wind lasted all night and sounded like a train coming through, which is what a tornado sounds like (so I've been told).  We didn't have a tornado, thankfully but we had massive trees blow down, lots of lasting power outages and were without phone service for a couple of days.  That meant no Internet.  WHAT????  I'm too dependent on Internet means of communication so it was hard for me and for those who expect to hear from me electronically on a regular basis.  There was no regular basis but by Sunday night all was swell.  Today we're having a gorgeous sunny day with temps in the 50's.  The air is still cool but it's pretty out there.  We have no leaves on trees or bushes yet but the maples are blooming  (ah-choo).  That's great progress.

The biggest progress to report is ICE OUT!  That happened Saturday afternoon, May 5th.  A tad late but not the latest ever.  It went out pretty quickly.  One of my friends at the foot of the lake says that it must have been a violent ice-out because there are ice blocks on his lawn going down to the water.  That's pretty amazing.

I've been busy--that seems to be my normal state these days.  I went to the thrift store to work on Saturday but there was no power so I got the day off.  That was a treat.  I had dinner with friends and watched the Derby, walked the bog with a friend in the morning yesterday--the purple trillium is just coming up there.  We may have a change of season after all.  My daffodils are blooming like champions and look great.  I went pansy shopping with a friend on Saturday, got my annual pot o'pansies planted and on the deck. 

This morning I went to the dump then to Plattsburgh to run some errands.  I should take my mother's package to the post office this afternoon but do I feel like driving even more today?  Unknown.