Is it really spring?

OK, so last weekend we started pulling out the deck furniture. Although the table, bar and barbecue all suffered the winter outside, I did manage to get all the chairs put into the barn before any measurable snow hit last fall. Buffalo was in no condition to be moving heavy shit, first in the fall healing up from a double groin hernia, then later in the winter, developing a stomach hernia. This past Monday he was finally relieved of the second hernia in a second surgery. He now is sporting a handsome row of staples from his belly button down in a row of five. But, I digress. So we start pulling out chairs last Saturday. For north east Ohio, it was near 60, for us folks, that's t-shirt weather. We picked up some burger and buns and barbecued and ate out on the deck. Well, mother nature paid us back for our brazen lack of respect for the month of the calendar year it was by snowing a couple of days ago.

Although there remain remnants of the white stuff in the shaded portions of the yard, it is still hard to mask the onslaught of spring in her majesty. Small spots of flowers are poking out. Our daffodils are almost ready to bloom. Our magnificent blue spruce pine in the front yard, the one Buffalo's Uncle Tony gave us so many years ago, has the start of new pine cones. The lilac buds are peaking out and the sugar maples are showing their sap buds. Although it is still very cool today, starting out in the low twenties and, if we are lucky, it may climb into the low fifties, the weather man is threatening a near 70 temperature on Thursday this week. Hmmm, I feel the need for speed. But until the temperatures get a bit warmer, I guess I will settle for picking up sticks in the yard and walking the dog.