Seeing stars

    I was delighted to see stars in the sky when I went outside this morning. It's the first morning in several days that the skies haven't been black. I knew when I saw the twinkling stars that the sky had finally cleared. I also was glad that the temperatures had cooled a bit and slowed the melt. I actually got to walk on solid ground when I fed the horses.

    Apparently other people also are excited that the fog burned off. When I went to the grocery store this morning, two of the workers were standing in front of the window gazing outside. I wasn't sure what they were looking at until one of them nodded toward the sun and commented on the beautiful sight.

      When I left the office for lunch I encountered several people who either had left their coats open or who were not wearing coats. The sun must be a sign of spring for them. I'm not sure if I'm ready to go coatless, but today's sunshiny weather certainly does put a spring to my step.

Posted by: annbailey on 3/16/2010 at 1:10 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Tags: annbailey, fog, spring, sun

Rain, rain...

    OK, enough already. I'm tired of being drizzled or rained on every time I go outside. I'm ready for the rain to stop and the sun to shine. Somehow it doesn't seem as bad slogging through mud and water if the sun is shining.

     Speaking of mud and water, we still have plenty of it at our house and soon there will be a lot more where that came from. Although, I am tired of it already, my sons have a different perspective on it. As we were leaving the farmyard this morning, I saw that the driveway to the garage was nearly under water from a melting snowbank. My sons noticed it, too, and Brendan said, "That's awesome, Thomas. We have to go sailing in it."

      That wasn't my reaction to the pond, but given that we can't do much about it, it's probably the apprpriate one. Kids have a great way of just enjoying what life gives them instead of fretting about it.

     Given that, I guess I better stop complaining about the weather and be grateful that it's warm enough to rain, not snow and that the snowpack is dwindling. If I approach it with an attitude like my children, it will be a sunshiny day, cloud cover or not.

Posted by: annbailey on 3/12/2010 at 10:44 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Tags: annbailey, country living, mud, rain, spring, wet weather

Marching through water

    A couple of weeks ago when I was buying pet food at a local store, I decided to pick up a pair of high rubber boots. I recalled that last year the store was sold out of boots by the time the snow melted and I figured that this time I'd buy them early and be better prepared.

     I'm feeling pretty good about my foresight because I'll be donning those boots this week. Rains during the past few days have turned part of our farm yard into a pond. I need to get through the water to reach the barn, so the boots will be called into duty. They'll also come in handy when I feed the horses. Their corral also has  turned into a muddy mess this week.

     Because it's still early March, I have a feeling it will get wetter before it gets drier. The boots, which reach, just below my knees, will keep my feet dry as I slog through the farm yard doing my chores. Hopefully, the rains will cease so I don't also have to use the boots when I'm washing clothes in the basement.

Posted by: annbailey on 3/9/2010 at 1:19 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Tags: annbailey, boots, country living, march, water

Has spring sprung?

    After the long, cold winter we've endured, we northern dwelllers are anxious for spring. A warm-up is forecast and temperatures are expected to be in the 30s by next week, which will be the first week of March.

     The forecast has some people musing about whether spring is here. I hate to be pessimistic, but I would say "no." Even by the calendar, spring doesn't arrive for nearly a month. Anyone who's lived here awhile knows that the calendar date usually doesn't coincide witht the onset of spring. We've had plenty of cold, snow and wind between March and early May and even if those storms technically are called spring storms, they still feel like winter weather.

       For me, though, it really doesn't matter if the warm-up signals the arrival of spring. I'm just glad that the temperatures are expected to get above freezing. A long, slow melt is exactly what's needed to avert flooding, and the weather during the next week should be ideal for that.

   Meanwhile, I can enjoy the warm temperatures whether it's spring or not. If spring fails to arrive by the middle of April, I'll be concerned, but for now I'll take the weather as it comes.

Posted by: annbailey on 2/26/2010 at 10:30 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Tags: flooding, snow annbailey, spring, weather, winter

Lightening up

    For several weeks now, the days have been noticeably longer at night. I can easily make it home before dark and still have some time to view our farmstead in daylight. That's a treat after the long, dark days of December and early January when it's nearly dark by the time I leave work at 5 p.m.

      This morning, for the first time I noticed that the days also are longer in the morning. I went out to feed the horses a little later this morning -- 6:15 a.m., instead of 5:30 am., and the sun was just beginning to come up. Instead of being pitch black, the sky was gray and I could discern the shapes of the horses when I was walking out to their corral.

   The lighter mornings are exciting to me because I have a much easier time rolling out of bed in the wee hours when it's light out than I do when it's dark. The longer days and the fact that Feburary is on the downside are signs that spring is definitely in sight.

Posted by: annbailey on 2/16/2010 at 2:09 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Tags: annbailey, country living, daylight savings time, spring