Cheery project

Last week when it was warm Audra decided that her stilts needed painting. Alicia helped. I admit that they turned out to be quite cheery. Now I need to get a picture of her walking on them. She's pretty good at it.

Babies!

Mommy and Daddy mourning dove have been very busy caring for 2 babies. Here is Daddy sitting with his youngsters. You can tell it is Daddy and not Mommy by the rosy color around his head and breast. Mommy is more of a tan.

Here are two little tykes looking out at the big new world out there. So far they haven't seen much but my porch. It's new and big to them just the same.

Amazing Transformation!

I don't think I have ever seen the trees bud and blossom as quickly as they have this year. It seems like we have almost literally gone from winter to a very warm and green spring over night. The picture at the left was just taken on March 28th. On that day, Alicia and Caeden donned their snow pants, boots, scarves, heavy coats and mittens to go outside and play.

And here they are today playing outside in shorts less than a month later! The birds are singing. I've seen some babies too. The trees are getting green. The grass is lush. Flowers are beginning to bloom. Best of all, the temperatures are warm warm warm!!!!! I love it! Sherman even went swimming in a pond today. It reminds me of that Bible verse that says "Weeping shall endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Something like that anyway! Not that I was weeping during winter because I do enjoy it. It has it's own special beauty. (Especially when I am looking at it through a picture window holding a hot cup of coffee)
Anyway, I thought I'd share this amazing transformation!

Twiggy

If yesterday was a day of play, then today was a day of work. After a long winter, there is a lot to clean up around the yard. This morning I had the kids outside working. All 4 of us worked to pick up the many twigs that managed to drop from the willow tree during the last 5 months. I was pleased that they all had a pretty good attitude about it. I'm hoping to develop strong work ethics in my kids.
The day turned out to be just gorgeous. High around 65. It didn't start out that way. It was a little crisp when we first started out. As the sun rose higher and our muscles warmed up, we all took off our jackets.

Here you can see...a job well done. Five containers of various sized paked with twigs and branches.

Sherman was out with us for a bit. I let him off the chain. He hangs out for a while...but then manages to sneak off somewhere. Luckily he did not come back needing a bath. But he needed a rest (and to be chained up again).

Spring Break

It is looking greener and greener here in upstate NY. Of course...there are not really any daisies out yet. This picture is from last summer. Since I really didn't have any pictures on my computer that represented what it was like here today, I decided to just go with this one. There is no school this week. My yard and house was filled with kids. I wasn't even babysitting. They just came. It started with my daughter Audra and her friend Jean. They decided that they should organize a neighborhood game of Capture the Flag which would be played in our yard and the next door neighbor's yard. I literally lost count of the number of kids who came by today. It turned out to be a nice opportunity for some new kids to join in the fun. All the kids were running around chasing eachother and trying to locate and capture flags. I noticed a girl standing on the edge of the yard looking at all the action. I could tell she wanted to join in, but seemed shy and unsure about it. I had never seen her before and was about to call Audra's attention to her in order to invite her into the game when Jean noticed her. Jean is very outgoing and didn't hesitate to invite her into the fun. Soon the girl's brother showed up too. They are new kids on the block.

I will have to say that I really enjoyed having the kids here. Everyone got along great. There were no problems at all that I could see. The sun was shining and everyone got plenty of exercise. I'm thinking that some kids are going to be sleeping well tonight.

Sunday Sunny Walk

It has been absolutely gorgeous outside the last few days. The warmth has been to fabulous. This photo was taken on Sunday afternoon. We went out for a walk as a family. So many people were out that we stopped a number of times to visit people we knew either on the side walks or in their yards. I just love this town. Can you tell? I took the two pictures from the previous post on the same walk.

Mystery Solved

I have just deleted my last post because of some inaccuracies. A long time ago while reading an article in a magazine about quilting, I ran across a little information about a girl who lived in this house in the 1850's-60's and whose father was the minister of the Congregational Church here in town. I also remembered that there was mention of a diary. I was interested when Gudl left information about a diary kept by a young girl by the name of Caroline Cowles Richards. I was very excited to learn that her diary is on-line. You can read the entire thing here. (ignore the cover page which is for a different book. Just click on the arrows to turn the pages)

So I began to read the diary and soon discovered what I thought were discrepencies between the diary and what I remembered the magazine article saying. First of all, Caroline's father was not the pastor of this church. In fact, she lived with her grandparents. Her grandfather was the town's banker. Her great-uncle had been the first pastor of the Congregational Church many years earlier, so I chalked that up to what had confused me. But then I was puzzled by things she wrote about her home. She described a wrought iron fence on her property that was quite high with a stone foundation. There is no fence on the property on which this house is located. It didn't seem like such a structure would be taken down. In another entry in the diary, Caroline tells of it raining quite hard. Her grandmother would not allow her and her little sister Anna to walk to church. Instead, they sat in the kitchen with their window opened so they could hear the sermon coming from the Methodist church located next door to their house. Well that settled it. This house was not Caroline's house. How could I have gotten two things wrong that I was sure that I had remembered?

It bugged me enough to stay up late on-line doing research until about 12:30 am this morning...but I solved the mystery. I finally tracked down the original magazine article that I had read. The girl who lived in the house was Susie Daggett. Her father was the pastor of the Congregational Church. She is mentioned many times in Caroline's diary because they were school chums. These two girls, along with a few other girls decided to make quilts together to keep for the day that each of them would marry. In the diary, Susie declares to the other girls that she has decided that she will never marry. The girls come to a concensus that they will make a quilt for her anyway. I could not find a picture of Susie...but I did find one of her father, Rev. Oliver E. Daggett.

Mrs Mourning Dove says "It's spring!"

It is hard to believe that less than a week ago our back yard looked like this. Monday and yesterday the weather was beautiful. Warm and sunny! It was about 60 degrees yesterday morning when I walked the kids to school. Everyone was wearing spring jackets. There are tiny buds on the trees and I saw signs of a few flowers poking through the earth. This morning the temperatures were back down to about freezing and I chose my winter coat again. This is typical NY spring weather. It could snow one day and be 70 degrees the next. As the days go by, the cold will come less and less and it will be warmer and warmer.

We might be confused about whether it is winter or spring around here, but the birds are definitely not confused. They know that it is time to build nests and lay eggs. We have a new little resident on our back porch. Mrs Mourning Dove has taken over an old nest. For several years there were robins in this nest. But last year...it was empty. I missed watching them last year and I am glad to see someone has moved in.