White to Brown...

Here's a post without pictures. I'm just not inspired by the color of my surroundings these days. I'll take some photos when the dominant color begins changing from brown to green. It's only recently gone from white to brown. We had snow cover from before Christmas until about a week ago!

This is my second spring living in MA. It definitely comes a couple weeks later here than in NJ. There have been a few nice days though. Last Thursday and Friday I spent some time raking and cleaning the gardens (although they need lots more work!) Over the weekend, I worked on the front garden with the family. I dug out some saplings under a bush that sends out suckers and the kids planted them in another part of the yard.

Snowdrops and a few crocuses are blooming. There are daffodil shoots growing taller every day. But there is still lots of brown grass, brown twigs, grey skies and mud.

I'm inside the house feeling the need to bring on spring with some spring cleaning. I stripped our bed down to the mattress this morning. Right now the thick king size mattress cover is in the washer. I keep having to run to the washer and try to change the balance of the load. It keeps pounding and banging like a drum. Boom Booom Boooom boom
booom boom boom boom boom boomboomboom....

Is this the drum role welcoming spring?

Update: an hour or so after writing this.....It's snowing!

Mothering like a Lioness

Here's another series of photos from our DC trip. A cool February day was a very good one to visit a zoo. I used to take the kids to the Bronx Zoo often in the summers when we lived in NJ. But, I guess animals feel a lot like us on hot summer days. They mostly slept. The animals were on the move at the National Zoo in late winter though.

We got to witness some lion family love. Early in the morning the male lion was in one large pen and two females were in another. When we headed back to see the cub showing around lunch time, the females were pacing eagerly at the door of their enclosure. Soon doors were opened and the females along with their seven 3-to-4-month-old cubs (from 2 litters) entered the male's enclosure.