Spring is Here

In typical Ohio fashion, Spring arrived with a bang. One day we were all cold, wearing sweaters and sitting in front of the woodstove --- next day we were wearing t-shirts and sandals and looking for iced tea and ice cream. These pictures are from Friday (April 24) and it is amazing how different things look today. We have leaves coming out on the trees, more flowers up, had to mow the grass . . .

This is our house and part of our front yard. Elizabeth is in the truck waiting to go grocery shopping. The little tree in the foreground of the third picture is a cherry tree. Today is is full of white blooms! I'll try to get pics up of the fruit trees in flower.

On Friday, Dad and I pulled out all of the bikes and cleaned them up so that we can "hit the trail" this week. It's amazing how dirty and dusty they get in just one Winter. That's Dad cleaning his old bike up so that we can sell it. Last year we tried all these different bike trails and his tire blew every time! Those thin tires just don't do well around here as the trails are not always perfectly smooth (one of them that we've gone to is actually gravel). So . . . he had to get a new bike with wider tires. The second picture is my bike. Nice, isn't it?! It is about nine years old, but with the help of a little soap and steel wool it looks new! The third picture is Elizabeth's new bike. She had a junker bike, so she had to get a new one too. She hasn't even had the chance to ride it yet, but we're hoping to try it out this week.

Some of the pictures are a bit washed out, but it was really bright outside that day. On Saturday I mowed the lawn for the first time this year! (Got really sunburnt, too, but we won't talk about that.) We went to the county compost recycling center and picked up two truck loads of free mulch for some different projects around the yard. Well, I'll try to get more pictures up soon!