walking again

We've officially had it with waiting for Spring to really start, and we started our routine of taking mornings walks again this morning. At least it was sunny (it snowed twice yesterday!), despite being quite chilly with a biting north wind. Yesterday was Joy's 9th birthday, so we took her with us, too, to celebrate. Walking pushed back the start of our morning "school" activities by an hour, but it's well worth it to get out and moving and enjoying the day. (It will be even more worth it once it finally warms up.)

Spring is TRYING to make an appearance. Here some daffodils push through. If only Canada would keep their cold wind to themselves!

Skunk cabbage is also doing it's best to come up.

And look! Crocuses!! (Or is it Crocusi? Guess not, spellcheck doesn't like that.)

Our favorite vernal pool still has a bit longer to wait for signs of life, though there's plenty of water in it.

The boys ponder over the felling of one of our favorite old snags, which apparently did not survive the winter. There are a lot of old trees (mostly Apples) along our road with great hollows and holes to explore, and this one had been a particularly active tree (I guess because it was just so dead!).

More evidence of winter damage, we stopped to discuss the sorts of critters that might have burrowed through the snow to snack on this woody shrub. And we took some time to make guesses as to whether or not there will be any new growth on this bush this year (and why there might not be). We'll keep checking back in with it to see if we were right.

Our property from the road.

"It sure is cold," Zoo Boy commented, "but it also sure is nice to be outdoors."

Amen to that, little brother.