Finally Spring! Opening the Summer Porch

The balmy breezes of Spring are finally here!


While we still get the crisp morning where we grab our winter coat, for the most part, warm temperatures have returned.








Have you ever noticed how suddenly you hear the birdsong for the first time in Spring and have forgotten that you missed it all winter?

This was a hard winter. I mean a really hard winter. In March, we only hit "normal" highs for FOUR HOURS. Yes, in 31 days total, the weatherman said we hit FOUR HOURS of normal temperatures!

Mother Nature threw the book at us to be sure.

Yikes!

The unofficial start of Spring at our house is the opening of the summer porch.
The summer porch typically becomes a respite for two facecord of wood during the winter months but this year it became a dumping ground for anything that we didn't want to deal with as you see:









So after throwing out things we weren't using anymore, putting out the flag and washing down all the surfaces, it came back to it's wonderful relaxed self.








It truly is one of my favorite places in the house...









I love sitting out here to read a book, talk to my mother on Sunday nights or watching the occasional summer thunderstorm.

 

 

 

Clearly I wasn't the only one awaiting the porch to be open!

 

 

 

 

And of course there was a new rug to mark the occasion. (Which I thought I had taken a picture of on the porch but apparently did not).

In other news, the chicks have begun getting their adult feathers which mean they are a special kind of cute/ugly. One of them tried to make a break for it last night. I went to give them clean water and there were only 5 in their little container house. My mind went to bad places. Did the cats get it? (The door is always closed but accidents happen). Did it escape and we'll find it by the smell later? (EWWWww!). Then I looked down. The little chick had quietly settled herself on the rug and was just dozing off. So I picked her up and put her back in her container house with her sisters.

 


While she wasn't happy being picked up, I secretly think she was glad to be back "home".






It's so nice to welcome Spring back!