This and That

Danielle & I are preparing for butterfly season! We planted a couple types of milkweed seeds last night. The larger seeds are ones we harvested from our plants last summer. The smaller ones are ones I bought to plant last year but didn't get to because we were still waiting on the patio guys. They are for the tropical milkweed, which is my favorite. Hopefully they will sprout despite the seeds being a little old and rough looking!

Clara was so excited when Ron was shoveling a path across the patio for her the other day. She wanted to fetch all the snow he threw. He didn't have time to play, though. I played snowball fetch with her for a few minutes today when I went out to fill the bird feeders. Retrievers will fetch anything!

I went to the park for a little while this afternoon and did not have a good time. You would think it would have dawned on me that when we have 9" of snow followed by sunshine and warmer temperatures that it would make for some pretty muddy trails. Well, I did think about the mud, I just didn't realize it would be that bad. The really bad part, though, was that I picked a trail that was a loop and when I got almost to the very end of it, I discovered it was flooded to the point of being impassable. That meant I had to turn around and hike back the way I had come, which included going up a very, very slick muddy hill. I couldn't even cut over off trail because there was a river on one side of me and flooding on the other side and ahead of me. I survived, but it was not a nice, relaxing afternoon out. The first time my socks got soggy, I should have turned around and headed for the van! And I didn't even see much. This pileated woodpecker was the only thing worthwhile that I saw, and I couldn't even get close to it. Oh well. I am thankful for blue skies and extra daylight. Maybe next time.