Sunday, February 20, 2011

Crazy days of winter

Last Sunday I drove to Aussie's Acers (how you spell "acres" in the country...bear with me while I test out new names for that "acerage" of mine...and Aussie's) and spent the day in the snow with the dogs. This was the snow that was in the process of melting from the blizzard a couple weeks ago.

But then on Thursday, the temperature soared into the 70s. That meant pent up turtles could be released outdoors.

Cathy has been trying to escape from her tank all winter. Was she excited to be outdoors again?

Hard to tell.

To have a salad picnic outdoors?

Also, hard to tell.

But what about Michael (with a cobweb on his nose)?

For some reason there was an urgency to get back into the house by trying to climb the steps...

But when he saw me looking at him, he reconsidered and headed off to his remembered favorite spot...

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... that prime one square foot area between the fence and the Japanese kerria.

How excited was Violet about this gorgeous day?

Not much.

I cleared some leaves and saw that some daffodils had poked their little heads above ground. I was excited to see that. But the daffodils? They seemed tentative about this whole spring thing too which is probably why they were still undercover.

Turtles, cats, daffodils...why oh why can't they be more like dogs?

In your face and enthusiastic about absolutely everything 100% all the time!

Come on spring, get moving! Show me some tracks.

8 comments:

Leenie said...

Glad you're seeing sun and green at Aussie Acres. We have three inches of fresh snow on top of three feet of rotten snow. No daffodils here for weeks and weeks. Thanks for the peek into the future. Loved the up close and personal view of Cathy and Michael. Hehe on Violet's cool composure.

Maria said...

Hi Leenie....This is the first winter I ever remember having dirty snow in Missouri (a familiar thing when I lived in Minnesota and Michigan)...but now it's all gone...for a while. I was just looking up on my blog to see what was going on a year ago and discovered that the daffodils last year were poking up at the end of January! I thought last year's spring happened too fast...this current one, once it gets going, is going to be something.

Sorry about your three foot mounds of snow. When my sister lived in the mountains of Colorado, I don't think she saw daffodils until July (or was it August?) and then just a couple months later...snow again. Is Idaho that bad...or is it worse???

Rusty said...

So much excitement there! one can almost see a smile on the turtle.
ATB!

Maria said...

Rusty- You can? You can see a smile???? Oh, I see what you wrote...."one can almost see a smile." Ha ha ha. I guess that's one way of describing their look...which is always one big scowl. The only exception is when Michael is enjoying a perfectly red ripe fruit like a watermelon or strawberry or tomato. :-) Looks like turtle scowls until.....June?

Mental P Mama said...

I thought the turtle was smiling too. But not like those wonderful dog friends you've got!

Rural Rambler said...

Maria you and those Kansas Pups! It is a hopeless wonderful case of puppy love!

That cobweb on MR's nose just makes me laugh. He'd be annoyed if he knew it was there.

Sweet Violet. Give her scritch for me.

I allowed myself 45 min of commenting/typing so came here!!!

Rusty said...

Marea - the smile is in the eyes! See them shine? :))

Maria said...

Mental-Those dogs smile all the time. I love visiting with them because I live in a house o'scowlers...except for Eddie who is always good....as is Starlinka.....but the rest of them....scowlers! I love being around smiling animals!! :-)

I, however, do NOT see even a hint of a turtle smile. :-)

Pix-I am terribly smitten with dogs. Like........really, really bad. LIke how you're smitten with kittens these days. We have it baaaaaad.

Regarding your time limit for blogging....Pix, your "problem" is just that you have too many people who like you and you like back. :-)

The cobweb on Michael's face made me laugh too. It's strange to see it there because he is usually so active during the winter. He's been kind of quiet this year though. Surprisingly, Cathy Jean has been the one who has been trying to jump out of her tank all winter.

Rusty-You must be some sort of turtle whisperer. I just see scowls from those two. :-) I will try and look harder in their eyes but whenever I do that, they whoosh and pull themselves into their shells. :-)