Spring has sprung!

Rickie and I sat on the swing just as sunset was nearing. The temp was dropping as the day ended. He was covered up with a soft fleece throw our daughter-in-law Lisa had made for him several years ago. I had a crocheted throw Lisa made for me for Christmas year before last. It is all my favorite colors and she worked on it off and on for a year. We were warm wrapped in these gifts and talked about how Lisa had made them for us and the time and care she invested. The clouds to the southwest were pink from the sitting sun and we stayed there until it began to get dark. (Photo was taken before we cut cedars down to open view.)

We had spent the day cutting some cedar and enlarging our view from the back yard. Sitting in the swing we could see back the 12 miles to town. There are some communication towers there and we could see 4 of them blinking with their red lights, and another one partially hidden by a big oak tree down the hill. There is a big hill you come down as you enter the Llano River valley and we could see that hill. it is a beautiful view; a million dollar view, as they say! Of course we didn't pay a million dollars for it!

I now have several piles of cedar to burn. The other day I burned the last of the piles I had at that time. Woodrow and Gus love a fire and had to come check it out. Woodrow would almost walk into a burning fire! I don't know why but he is especially drawn to one. Later that afternoon after the fire had burned down and I had sprayed water on it, I saw him standing in the middle of it. I am pretty sure it was still warm but he had to find out for himself!

A couple of days ago Rickie and I went around cutting little cedars down. He has a small chain saw he is trying out. His big one is heavy and upon our neighbor Scott's recommendation he added a small one to his tool box for the smaller cedars. I use my long handled loppers for little ones. I found a huge claret cup cactus on the rock shelf going down the hill. When it blooms it will be covered with red flowers.We have a big one in a pot on the porch but this one was two times as big, at least! We will keep checking on it to see it when it blooms.

I went back to the dry creek or wash that runs across the back of our property. There were small pools of water and it bubbled and ran in the area beneath the cliff after the rains we had last week. It used to do that all the time the first 10 years we had our place. When Natalie was little she told me how she had drank the water that bubbled up from the rocks! There is a type of frog that buries itself in the sand and goes into suspended animation in times of drought. It emerges when it is wet and we can hear them from the cabin. It has been years since we heard them. As we sat on the porch yesterday I wondered aloud if we would ever hear them again. I hope so.

One day last week we let the longhorns into the yard. There is some fresh green grass and we knew they would enjoy it. It has been a while since we let them in; they are so big now. They were excited and did some running, jumping, and head bumping to show their joy!

This morning there were some yellow evening primroses blooming in the yard. When we were kids in north Louisiana we called a variety of these buttercups. These open up in the late afternoon and follow the sun. This morning they were facing the sun to the east and closed up shortly after we saw them. With the drought we didn't have much in the way of wildflowers last year so I hope this is a sign of a better year. So far it looks promising! There are wild bluebonnets all over the place.

It was a beautiful weekend and we spent every moment we could outside in the perfect Spring-time Hill
Country weather. We often get a late freeze or two and have had snow at Easter before. But right now I just want to go to the nursery and buy spring flowers to plant!