Springs Coming.. But She Ain't Here Yet!

Ever since we've had kids we've always told them the season of their births.  E is fall, J is winter, R and L are spring and Baby J is summer. Well R's birthday is coming up soon and for some reason the kids think that spring weather is going to MAGICALLY appear on the day after R's party.  Umm NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. We've, or so I've been told, gotten about 50 cm of snow in the past 30 days. It's been snowing for the last, Oh at least 3 days. Spring isn't going to pop her face in anytime too soon! We've not even got spring like temps. If anything it feels like January out there. Windy and NASTY and COLD. Last night it hit -25 again! Our 3 days of 'the last cold spell for the winter' has lasted almost 10 days. And shows no signs of stopping.

L was so excited today he came running into the bedroom to tell me that the day after R's birthday they were going to get the horns they got for their bikes for Christmas and put them on their bikes and I just stared at him bug eyed as my brain tried to find a way to tell my 5 almost 6 year old that season called spring.. Isn't springing this year... She's really oozing. Nothing 'springy' about her. I have to admit I knew not what I was going to say until it came out of my mouth. (Thank goodness it wasn't what I was thinking.. I'm not sure 'what are you NUTS.. SPRING IS NEVER COMING!!' would have helped the situation.) But I found myself telling him that Spring only STARTS by R's Birthday and that, if we're lucky!, we'll be able to put the horns on the bikes by the time HIS birthday comes around. It's about a month after R's and hopefully by then some of this snow will be melting instead of being added too and we'll at least be able to see dirt!  Thank you Lord for small things like just the right words to say. This actually CHEERED him and he bounced off merrily. I'm still a bit flabbergasted.

We watched a Franklin Movie yesterday entitled 'Franklin and the Green Knight.' It is a cute little movie about the coming of spring and the coming of changes. We love it. We mostly love the songs. One of them goes...
               "Spring WHERE ARE YOU!! Come on Spring! Lets have some fun!!'

And just for the record.. we're all doing fine. Taking a lot of breaks for 'just plain fun', keeping warm and mostly staying home. Taking our vitamins and rejoicing in and thanking God for our family. I am, frankly enjoying the slower season and taking some much needed time for things that I've been putting off for almost too long. Some sewing, lots of James Harriot :), some reading: some heavy, some light, baking and fun school projects. My house is starting to feel 'taken care' of again what will a good chunk of it gone through and sorted and re organized. It's amazing how stuff breeds when your not looking!! I'm also taking time to go through the kids clothes and make needs/wants/too small/ too big, lists and piles. Never boring around here! 

A Moose Sighting.

Yesterday evening as I walked by the front door I happened to glance out the front window. At first, what I saw, reminded me of our calf 'Steerseye.' But something wasn't quite right and I went and took a longer look. I'm glad I did. It was a cow moose. They really look nothing like cows even in the early evening light, but the way she was standing at the end of the driveway made her into just a dark shape in a darkening world. I was quite grateful it was not Steerseye as I would have had to walk through very deep snow to get in front of him to push him back into the yard as he spooks easily and I really didn't want him on the road.

I love moose. We used to have a cow moose and her, that years, calf come and visit us while I was growing up. She always went right for the garden spot and Mom says she went right to the broccoli and cauliflower plants and ate them as quickly as possible.  If I remember right the calf didn't get much.. it was chased off. Perhaps this garden treat was similar to chocolate for women :)

 Mrs. Moose in our driveway.. chewing on the willow. She doesn't look very big here but that willow is twice as tall as I am :) In the bottom picture she's scratching her back. That LUMP of snow right in front of her is our Toyota Corolla Station wagon.. or at least the snow covering said car. These are the best two pictures of the bunch! BTW anyone who is looking for said car is welcome to her. She's white.. she has problems that aren't too bad and she's cluttering up the place. Oh and we totally outgrew her :) 

As this was only the 2nd moose to be seen on our place I was super excited! I hollered for the kids and they came running. I placed them all around the window and we OHHHH'd and AHHHHhhhed over her.  She was alone which surprised me as the one that lives in our lease had a calf this fall. So there are either two, which is doubtful, or she's lost her calf sometime between then and now. The cow Papa had seen earlier this year in the hay had not had a calf with her either. I suspect this moose came through our yard and wandered out the driveway as Maggie was hiding by the milking area and bawling. The kids were SUPER excited too and we stood there and watched her for about 2 minutes when J and I had the same idea. I was already heading to find the camera when he said. "MOM GET THE CAMERA!! TAKE A PICTURE!!!' It was all very exciting :) I did get the camera and I did take several pictures but NO good ones as the light was terrible and it being -22 outside I really didn't want to stay out long. Oh and the fact that I was so far way.. NOT that I was going to go closer.. Well... I MIGHT have if it hadn't been so cold. She browsed on the little willow at the end of the driveway then wandered on to the road and stood there by the end of the driveway and scratched her back! No kidding!! Just like Maggie does.. one leg at a funny angle and her teeth on her back. After she was on the road she slowly wandered her way past our middle hole in the trees on the way down the road. (That's when I would have gone closer.. even if she'd been mad I could have easily made it inside before she fought her way through all that snow in between us or gone around back on the driveway!) Chip either didn't notice her at all or just didn't care as he made no mention of her passing at all. After she'd gone on down the road we smiled at each other and went back to our doings. I wonder if some day the kids will remember the excitement of the moose in the coming dark on our very own driveway!

Oh and for those of you in warmer climates.. Yes these pictures really were taken on February 28th. 2011. This is truly what our yard looks like at the moment. :)