Close to Nature
The feeling of life is different in Montana than it is say in Hemet, CA. I thought about that Friday as I walked with Laura and Jim through her back "yard" which is actually about 5 acres of pine. There's little grass and lots of tiny wild flowers. Rocks and pine cones are scattered liberally. Pine trees and aspen fill the space with here and there a clearing where trees have come down in the wind or been toppled by Steve.
Steve and Jim cut trees, split logs and stacked over a cord of wood. So the kids are off to a good start for next winter. They now have two wood burning stoves to keep going (a new one in the office) so I think they need 4-5 cords ready. That why Laura says her life is trees!
We all went out for dinner to Spice of Life in Hamilton. Son Jim treated! The food and service were very good considering it was jam packed most of the time. It's a small restaurant with just 2 waitresses and they were running. We were happy as clams until we had to wait a long time for the check. Jim finally captured our waitress who thought she'd given us the check and wondered why we hadn't paid yet! Oh Well!
Here's blooming progress, from Friday...
...to Saturday!
The weather is warmer than when we arrived, very much Spring. Funny how we see people wearing shorts and sitting out at picnic tables drinking beer. It's not quite that warm to me but after a long winter I remember how that warm sun feels. We grew up in Illinois and those first Spring days always felt like summer!
I made a batch of brownies yesterday. Bad move. We just had brownies and red wine for dinner last night while we watched The Sopranos on DVD. Very decadent! But the bikes are out of the car so we'll do some healthy bike riding today.