expirationdates

Wait a Minute!

It's April right?  It is not supposed to be snowing.

It is snowing big time.  We have about 2" so far.  They say another inch tonight and freezing temps.

You saw last post that Spring is a little behind this year.  I sure hope the buds survive this.

All the buds have a nice coating of ice.  This is the big leaf maple in front of the house.

This is my neighbors Magnolia tree, just about to bloom.

Here is my new Japanese Maple, it is still in the pot.

The Salmon-berries are all weighted down with snow and ice. 

While completely out of place it is so beautiful, so silent and crisp. 

We had to put the heat back in the chicken house and I'm glad we don't have tomatoes in already, there are a lot of folks scurrying around getting their gardens covered up.

I'm also glad it's Saturday tomorrow as the roads are going to be a mess.

 

Migration

The Brant Geese are on the move again.  Brant make one of the most amazing migrations twice each year. Over 140,000 Pacific Brant migrate along the pacific flyway in the spring from Baja to the Izembek lagoon on the Alaska Peninsula, stopping to rest and feed on the eel grass along the way.  We spotted them in Blain, WA in Birch Bay last weekend.

This has to be my favorite goose.

I used to be in charge of several flocks when I worked at Northwest Wildfowl and grew to love their personalities.

I could watch them for hours.

This coming weekend there is a festival called  Wings Over Water NW Birding Festival  in their honor, in Blaine Washington.  There is also the Brant Wildlife Festival in Canada which we have attended many times and the Brant always seem to oblige and show up.   

Spring?

It seems that spring is coming later and later every year.  It sure felt like spring or summer really when we got temperatures well over 70 on Saturday, but it was back to rain on Sunday.  We were looking back at previous April dates to see what the apple trees were doing.

This is from this morning.  Not much going on there.

April 07

April 06

April 05

By this time most years the onions were up and the tomato plants were in.  Not sure why we are so far behind this year.

We did have a late snow a few weeks back.  The froggies came out prior to the snow and went back to bed to wait for spring I guess.  They are out in full force now.  We saw these guys on a walk at Narbeck last week.

Here are what I think are salamander eggs.

It's hard to tell from this distance.  There are hundreds of eggs in that jelly like ball.

Time Management

Has it been that long?  Sigh.  While I love my job and I still consider it my dream job, working from home has it's pros and cons.  On the pro side, I don't have to leave the house or even get dressed if I don't want to.  I can set my own hours and I am a morning person so when I get up at 5:30 to see Dave off to work I usually start working.  I can stop for coffee, take a walk, go back to bed..........it's all up to me.  Sometimes there are deadlines but mostly it's continuing work.

However, the cons for me are it's hard to turn it off, the five o'clock whistle does not blow.  Last week I realized that I have not been posting, haven't quilted or done a house project in so long that I needed to rethink my schedule.  I have missed all these things that are what working at home is all about so I'm changing my schedule!  It's good to be back.

Reserve this space

I know it has been a long time since the last post.  Jane has been busy.  She has a backlog of great pictures of Brant geese and even Harlequin ducks.

This weekend we are going to go and get even more pictures. 

On top of that we had a surprise visit from a flock of green wing teal.  We have never seen them before in the wild. Those pictures really spotlight the great 28X zoom of the Panasonic Lumix FZ18DMC camera.  Jane will write a full review soon. She just needs to hear from her loyal readers.

I think even the casual reader has to admit that her blog has been full of content even though the focus has changed some from dream home building to dream home living, she is truly living her dream.

As always we will keep you posted.

Dave (dream home builder)