Winter Storms In But Spring Stands Its Ground...

Oh yes! Spring is on its way here! Even though a cold chilly wind is still blowing off the snow on the mountains... the ground has dried up, and thawed out, and stores are beginning to sell the first plants for spring planting, and the ground is beginning to show signs of green everywhere you look!  It is a welcome sight after winter to see spring arriving!

However, as usual, the seasons never change here without resistance.  One season holds on as long as possible while the next season tries to inch its way in.  Such is the case again here with winter and spring.  Spring has been showing up with beautiful green grass, crocuses poking their heads up, and tulips waving in the wind... but winter is not giving up without a fight!

NOPE!

We got up last Sunday morning, April 27th, and lo and behold, it was snowing up a storm... and not only snowing, it was sticking.  The ground was covered with the falling snow.

The snow sticking to the green grass looked just a little out of place!

But it wasn't long before the snow stopped falling, and then it began to rain, really really hard.

  And then the sun came out... and then the fun really began!  It seemed as if the sun was literally sucking up all the moisture from the ground, turning it into steam, and the cool wind was blowing it...

It was the neatest thing to see the steam rising from the ground, and moving visibly east!

Isn't that the neatest thing! The steamy rising didn't last long, and the day warmed up after that to a beautiful balmy 60 degrees with a cool wind blowing.  Even thought winter made a feeble attempt to hold its tenacious grip on us, it didn't last!  

Since we've been having such nice weather this week, it was a chance to get out and do some hiking.  Here in north Idaho you learn to take instant advantage of nice weather, because it may not last long!  So my dear friend and I headed out on a hike together.  The day was overcast when we left, but soon after we were hiking, the sun came out, and it was just marvelous! Our pedometers said we walked about 3 miles, and it felt great getting out, and enjoying the beautiful day!

You can see the mountains in the distance still have quite a bit of snow on them.

   I read in the newspaper yesterday that Schweitzer mountain still has a snow pack of 123'!  Wow!  That's a lot of snow that still needs to melt!

These lovely purple flowers were growing everywhere.  I think they are some kind of violet, and have looked on the gallery where they have pictures of northern Idaho wildflowers, and I didn't see them there.  So, I don't know what they are, but they sure are pretty!

When we got back to the house, the chipmunks were out, and were quite content to let me snap a few pictures of them.

 This little guy was too busy eating to be concerned about my camera.

He did stop eating long enough though, to pose for this cute picture! Isn't he/she one cute critter!

I hope spring has stopped by where you live!  It certainly is a marvelous feeling to know that the long winter is behind you, and glorious days of being outside in the beautiful sunshine await us!