Spring flings

So much going on! After what felt like weeks of rain, the sun has appeared and it's finally really spring. We're spending as much time outside as possible, which thrills Calla, until inevitably, it's time to go back inside.

We celebrated Easter with Josh and Jeri. Since they left right after church on Sunday, our big Easter dinner with them was on Saturday, at a local state park. Josh and Joe fished, Calla threw sticks in the lake, and Jeri and I tried to keep Calla from throwing herself in the lake. At the end of our afternoon there, Joe caught a nice big large-mouth bass. Josh and Calla were impressed.



Joe ended up throwing her back, since she appeared to have a belly full of roe. Calla still talks about "big fish" when she sees this picture.

Sunday morning, we had our last of Calla's three Easter Egg hunts. Josh was a good Easter bunny, and by hunt #3, Calla had figured this game out. She loved that these eggs were filled with goldfish crackers, cheerios and just a few m&ms. So much better than that silly chocolate that was in her other eggs (which I've just now polished away).

In other news, we've had a set-back in our garden. Nearly all of our home-grown seedlings just didn't make it. Probably due to a combination of factors, such as a lack of a good greenhouse space, perhaps poor plant nutrition, and maybe some parental negligence. Joe's plan now is to buy seedlings and just pretend we grew them from seed. You'll keep our secret, right?

And my really sad news - a death in our avian family. We had a nest of robins in our back porch rafters. The nest was situated so that mama robin and I could see each other through our kitchen window and I watched her feed her babies, with their demanding, gaping mouths. One morning this week, we came down and the nest was on the ground, with no sign of babies or parents. I had hoped that maybe the babies were big enough to fly. Or that mom and dad had relocated them safely to another nest. When I proposed these theories to Joe, he looked at me with that tender face you might use with a child whose sick dog has just been taken "to the farm." Sure, maybe that's what happened.

This theory seemed more and more unlikely when he pointed out some blood stains on the porch and found a few little bird... parts... on the ground. New theory - nest fell down during the night and a nasty neighborhood cat surprised them by squeezing through our fence. I'm just a little heart-sick over my intersection with the cruelty of nature. Sure, we still have our many finches. But they don't greet me over my morning coffee.

So, that's what's been going on in our lives. Lots of outside adventures. Here's hoping good weather finds you enjoying all the best of spring.