Spring is just around the corner!

       Yesterday was a beautiful day--73 degrees and sunny!  In my opinion that is perfect!.  I picked up sticks for several hours, (Country Guy helped me in the afternoon) but we still have some to do yet.  Picking up sticks is a never-ending chore when living in the woods!  It is amazing how many fall after a storm or strong wind.  What good exercise, though--all that walking and bending over, and then the result is a nice big pile to burn for a wiener roast!

The results of our labor.

         I learned from my North Carolina friends that they plant pansies in the fall because they flourish in cooler temperatures and will survive and thrive in their mild winters.  How wonderful to have blooms all winter!   In late spring they dig them up and plant summer blooming annuals.  Since our winter is harsher than theirs, I knew they wouldn't survive all winter, but realized they would be fine much sooner than I used to plant them, so yesterday I filled the pots at our front door with pansies.  Don't they look cheerful?  I have been so eager for spring that I just had to get a head start on a little beauty.  (If you look very close you can see my reflection in the door as I'm taking the picture--in case you forgot what I looked like.  :o)

  

     Country guy also helped me dig daffodils from a spot on our property where they grow wild.  We moved most of them to the new garden I started last year in an area where several trees died.  (It seemed to me a garden would be a good way to cover up the stumps left from the removal of the trees.)   I have tried to move a few daffodils every year since we've lived here, so this year there should be a great many blooming when spring arrives.  In another week it will be very beautiful around here!

This picture was taken last year when I had a different helper.