Long, long Winter

It's been a bit of a rough winter.   We had a lot of snow, I'd say parts of the garden had four to five feet on the ground.   The park benches that I have were no where to be seen as they were hidden under the snow.   There's still a bit around but most of it has finally disappeared.   Temperatures are down most days.   I woke up this morning to the trees covered in glitter from the freezing rain that fell and the deck was slippery with ice.

I've come to the conclusion after going through this winter that I'm going to have to invest in another source of heat other than the wood stove.   I find with each year now that it's harder on my body to be lugging wood in a couple of times a day from down in the driveway.  Climbing on the roof every so often to clean the chimney is no fun either when there's a bitter wind blowing.   Also, the back part of the house which is a relatively new addition, has an almost flat roof so ice dams build up with all the snow and it causes leaks in the ceiling inside.  The ceiling is ruined at this point.  I've gotten up on the roof after each snow fall to try to get as much snow as possible off but it still leaked.   I'm going to have to find a roofing company to give me a quote on what can be done to prevent this happening in the future.   It's going to be an expensive year.

There's more activity in the garden now.   I didn't have many Blue Jays over the winter months but they've come back and are courting.   A grouse has been showing up most days.  It picks at the seeds that have fallen from the feeders.  It's a sweet bird.

Last fall I cleared a bit of ground to make a Fairy Garden.   Over the winter I've made five stone houses and a half dozen mushrooms out of clay which I then painted.   I'm anxious to get going on it once all the snow has gone and the ground dries up a bit.

I imagine the cats were as disgruntled as I was with the winter.   All has changed now because they can get outside whenever they want.   I'll soon be doing spring things like cleaning up the beds, etc.  I'm so looking forward to it.

Tommy enjoying a bit of sun.