My husband remarked today to me that he could hardly believe we were at the end of March. It seems March flew by as we enjoyed many gorgeous days of sunshine here, with some highs up into the 60s, and we began to see much of our snow begin to melt.  Amazingly though, we still have a lot of snow left on the ground, but it is still melting slowly.  They say if March comes in like a lamb, it will leave like a lion or vice versa... if it comes in like a lion, it will leave like a lamb. 

Our first day of March looked like this on our morning walk.... a nippy 8 degrees, frosty and cold!

And like this on our evening walk of March 31 at a mild temperature of 40 degrees.... yes, March has gone out like a lamb here...  :)

However, on the first day of March, the chickens decided to make a run for it, out of the coop.  I didn't blame them a bit. It had been a long winter!

Poor old Mr. Pepper our oldest rooster, he has made it through the winter!

On this very cold day, the turkeys huddled like this to keep warm.

One of our very favorite meals is this Chicken Spaghetti, which I often make on cold winter days.

Always wonderful to see the clouds rolling in billows of color on the horizon.

I've been working on a little tea-time quilt!  I took a paper piecing quilting class and using nine of the blocks, I am making a table topper quilt.  It is mostly finished now, just the hand quilting left to do.  I will show a picture of the quilt when I finish it.... hopefully in time for a garden tea party :)

Icy roads in March gently bathed up by the day's last light.

Hoar frost coating the wild rose that blooms in my neighbor's yard.  Soon... it will be sporting blooms for spring!

As the sun came out and got up to 60 degrees, there was still so much snow, that I couldn't stay inside, and took the dogs for a snowshoe through our woods.

It was deep and slow going, but with the 60+ warm temperatures, it was so much fun snowshoeing in just a light shirt! It was too warm for a coat!

Riley found something interesting in the snow.

Annie and Riley... always on alert.... so much to see and investigate in the forest!

Our favorite chocolate chip recipe... variated now, as I do not use shortening any longer, and only real butter. Years ago when I made them, I always used shortening.  But now... only butter :)

The trick to perfect chocolate chip cookies is to bake them until they just start to lightly brown, remove them from the oven, and let them cool 2-3 minutes on the pan, and then remove them to cool.  Crispy on the outside and yummilicious gooeiness on the inside :)

Since the middle of March, we have had days on end of sunshine! It has been glorious! You can see the joy on Annie's face... that we are all feeling! No more snow and ice on the roads!

The snowbanks remained quite high after the sunshine began, I could hardly see over the tops of them.

60+ degrees and enjoying every drop of that gorgeous sunshine!

The March Worm supermoon... it was amazing to see! As the moon set over the river, it was a splendid moment to witness.

Out of all the supermoons this year, this was the only one that we were able to see without cloud cover. It looked like an orange in the sky!

I always start my seeds after St. Patrick's Day.  With our late and very short growing season, I start most of my seeds indoors. I have used this Garden journal I created back in 2016 to keep a record of my crops each year.  It is a simple composition journal, doesn't have to be fancy, but it works to keep track of your planting schedules and success.

These are my favorite flowers to start indoors.  Some can be sewn directly into the soil, but others need a head start.

Keeping track of each seed packet and bush/shrub/tree that has been planted, along with results/failures.

I also have a garden plan, which is pretty basic.

I mix my seedling soil with a bit of this Organic Bio-Tone Starter.  I find it gives the plants an extra head start.

On a warm sunny day, with plenty of snow still on the ground, I planted the seeds.

Then I put a seedling warmer on each rack and mounted the grow lights (I just use regular fluorescent lights or LED lights, I don't find the grow lights are any better than the cheap ones).

I leave the lights on for 16 hours a day, and off for 8 hours, as plants need to rest as well.

The snow continues to melt!  Large puddles and little creeks start appearing in the fields.  It is an exciting time to see the ground reclaimed back from the snow!

Indoors, my Parade rose continues to outdo itself! For the first time, it now has 3 blooms appearing!  This is the rose my husband bought me last year, and it is still blooming away! I'm amazed because any other indoor roses I've had in the past have never lasted that long! I've been giving it a weekly teaspoon or so of coffee grounds. I think this might be the trick, along with the great light it has in this spot.

Today March 31... this is still my garden! Much of it still lies buried under the snow blanket.

But the good news is that along the edges of the garden, the snow has melted, and look at what is eagerly popping up through the dirt!

Oh happy day! I will have tulips soon enough :)

I may not have flower blooms in my garden just yet... but I've started putting back out my glass plate flowers and their cheerful faces will light up the garden until the colorful blooms arrive.

As my husband and I walked the dogs this evening, the brilliant sunset filled the air with its beauty.  March... in our world anyway... left us silently as a lamb.  How thankful we are for the beauty in our skies... I know many others got unexpected snowstorms this year on the last day of March.  One just never knows what a day may hold.

So we make the most of it, enjoying the beauty of whatever each day holds for us.  Like my father tells me... there is one thing you can't change... and that is the weather.  Like it or not, there is not much you can do about it, but just make the best of it.  And we are.  We are loving the gorgeous sunshine as it slowly melts the snow, and we are very thankful that the risk of flooding here is low because of the slow snow melt. 

As my garden awakens from its long winter nap, I anticipate blooms any day now from my snowdrops, crocuses, and daffodils. The tulips will take a little longer to bloom but will extend the color in my garden until summer arrives.  But we mustn't hurry summer along... we are happy and content right now to just enjoy springtime :)

Blessings to all of you... and let me know how spring looks in your world!  :)

Our daughter has been in Spain now for almost two months, and that is just hard to believe that her time there is almost halfway over! She has already finished her midterm examinations! Where does the time fly off too... a rhetorical question I know, because no one I know has the answer!

Twenty-three years ago today, in the very early morning hours of St. Patrick's Day, our precious daughter was brought into this world, and the world has been a better place because of her {smiles}.  We are missing her very much as she celebrates her birthday halfway around the world, and so I thought it would be a good time to share with you some of the memories she has made while studying in Spain. 

This is inside the university campus where she is studying, in the main courtyard.

Inside the la Catedral de Granada, one of the most magnificent cathedrals in Spain.

A closer look at the magnificence of this building!

The outdoor courtyard area of the Palace Alhambra.

Inside Alhambra looking out into the courtyard. Such incredible architecture!

She traveled to the city of Toledo, Spain, and this is a gorgeous view overlooking the city.

Another view of Toledo, Spain.

And one more... the sunset views were just stunning to see!

Crossing one of the many bridges in the city of Toledo.

La Catedral de Toledo is one of the largest cathedrals in Spain.

A view of the magnificence inside La Catedral de Toledo.

Gold statutes inside the cathedral.

El Palacio Real (Royal Palace of Madrid) where the royal family hosts official events.  The palace was incredibly opulent, she tells us, but inside they were not allowed to take pictures of it!

A picture of the Royal family of Spain.

She toured the capital city of Spain, Madrid, on a bicycle!  With the group they rode bicycles through much of the city for several hours! What a great way to explore!

A marketplace in Madrid

This beautiful peacock graced the grounds of the park they visited in Madrid.

She has gone on several hikes around Granada, and this is a picture of a hike she took that had views overlooking the Sierra Nevada mountains.

She tells us that cats are everywhere in Spain, and they are quite beautiful souls!

A monument in a park braced on either side by two beautiful orange trees.

On another hike, they climbed through a canyon, and it was quite a challenging hike.  In places, they had to crawl!

Crossing this wooden swinging bridge through the canyon.

What an interesting hike this must have been, much hard work went into creating this trail through the canyons.

A view of the beautiful Sierra Nevada mountain range in the warm afternoon light.

A sunset view of the city of Granada

Here she visits an Arabic teahouse called El Banuelo.

She ordered te pakistani (Pakistani tea) which she really enjoyed and a Baklava, all very delicious.

She has also gone to visit the Rock of Gibraltar. Here is a picture of the entrance at the base of the Rock

She says she nearly got blown away by the high winds at the Europa cliff point with the view of the Trinity lighthouse.  Beautiful view!

What a gorgeous color the water is!

She got to see the monkeys who live on the Rock of Gibraltar, and it is a quite well-known fact that these cute little monkeys are trained pickpockets, so they were warned beforehand to not touch the monkeys or turn their back to them, and to hold their belongings close!

Back in Granada, she happened upon a spontaneous flamenco dancer, dancing in the street entertaining the crowd who gathered to watch.

This is La Plaza de Espana in the town of Sevilla. Again, here you can see a crowd gathered to watch a flamenco dancer.

A sunset view of the Plaza de Espana, Sevilla.

Touring Cordoba, Spain. Such an incredibly beautiful stone bridge!

Walking through the streets of Cordoba, she captured these beautiful pots lining the walls of the homes.

Being a gardener myself, I just have to ask, how do these plants get watered?  I don't know the answer, but I do wonder! Aren't they beautiful!

So I will stop there for now... she has recently traveled to Portugal and also the country of Morocco! I will have to do another "Adventure in Spain" post and share those beautiful pictures with you :)

But to bring us all back to reality... this is what it looks like in my world now that we have finished traveling in the sunshine in Spain....

Frosty mornings with warm sunshine and plentiful snow.

Our morning walks take us past this beautiful view every morning.

When one looks at this picture, how can you not love winter? And I do, I love winter dearly... but I am ready for Spring... it is time  {smiles}

Just this morning I captured this wild rose bush decked out in its organdy white gown of hoar frost... but it won't be long now before buds burst forth and wild roses bloom once again.  We are all ready and waiting :)

I took the dogs on a snowshoe through the woods this afternoon.  The days of snowshoeing and cross-country skiing around our home no doubt are drawing to a close for this season, and I want to enjoy it while I can.

Enjoying our time in the woods, the dogs are always on high alert, which makes them great companions. However, their "high alert" stance almost always involves a deer, lol!

Our weather forecast for this upcoming week says that we are to reach highs of 60s on Wednesday which is also the first day of Spring... I do hope for once they aren't wrong! We are all looking forward to the warm sunshine forecast for this coming week, and already we have seen the temps rising during the day with the warm sunshine and have seen a lot of the snow melt, but it has a long way to go yet.  Spring seems to be a bit finicky in her arrival, so one just never quite knows for sure. 
But for now, we are just very grateful for the sunshine in the forecast! 

I hope you enjoyed your "armchair travels" to a land where springtime has been in full swing for some time now, and we look forward to the day coming soon when we shall enjoy it here too :)

How is Spring looking in your world?