Friday, April 04, 2008

Foto Friday

If I were just posting the first photo, below, I'd be tempted to subtitle this post as Signs of Spring. To which you might be forgiven for wondering if I had, indeed, lost my precious few remaining marbles seeing that I'm shovelling snow.

To be fair, however, you will note that I'm working outside sans overcoat, and that's one sign of spring. You see, it almost went up to 10°C/50°F yesterday. Another is that I am shovelling snow onto the driveway not off the driveway. It's almost like rewinding a tape: first you throw the snow up there, and next you take it back down. I have never done this before in my life, but I decided to give Mama Natura a little help in reducing the pile. I figure that it will melt faster if I spread some of it back on the driveway. And I do want it to melt down somewhat more quickly than it has been. I know that it seems and looks odd, but it's been an odd winter ... and I'm an odd sort of bloke anyway.

I'm not the only one to do this, however. Nice Neighbour (across the street in the photo — the very same one who helped build that pile with her snowblower) has done much the same thing: much more of the same thing in point of fact. She has uncovered some of her garden down to bare ground, and guess what? She has tulips sprouting up. Can you imagine that they were sprouting beneath all of that snow? Amazing.

There have been other signs, of course. I saw my first robin on Wednesday, and as I continued along that same street I spied Canada Geese frolicking in and over the water. The other day Cuppa and I even saw goslings swimming in the river. The banks of the river are still icebound as are some of the slower river sections, but spring babies have been born nevertheless.

Well, that's a lot of prose for Foto Friday, so here are two photos. Nikki Dee is such an active tyke that when I tried to read to her I expected about a nanosecond attention span, but she actually maintained interest for quite a while, in baby terms anyway. She quite enjoyed turning the pages and pointing to Humpty Dumpty after I had done so a number of times. Maybe, we do have a reader on our hands!




Have a good weekend.

8 comments:

Jane said...

Glad the sun's finally come out. Here's hoping you find a few tulips under your pile of snow too!

Janet said...

I noticed immediately the lack of overcoat, so I thought it must be warming up! Yay! Amazing tulips.
And your little one will be a reader. Both of mine spent a few months just wanting to turn pages, but now we read many books a day.

JunieRose2005 said...

:) So spring is on the way!!!

I bet you're all ready for it by now!!

Oh! That little cutie of yours will like reading! She seems very interested!


Junie

Donna said...

Looks like you're Finally warming up, up there!! Wonderful!! And "Baby Sugars" is just an absolute doll!!!hughugs

Gina said...

I love watching babies interact with books, it's priceless!

Cathy said...

Nikki Dee is discovering the joys of literature at Grandpa's knees. How precious is that?

That picture of you reversing the snow removal is a keeper:0)

Tossing Pebbles in the Stream said...

In a week it will all be gone. You should have bought a place across the street. South facing property will melt sooner.

I am starting to see mud here. My piglets a plowing up the lawn with their snouts.

I hope you little one grows to love books. I did all you are doing and my son was never a big reader in spite of a house full of books.

ChrisB said...

That snow spreading sounds like hard work to me!
I love the Nikki Dee pictures~ brings back memories of sharing books with my grandchildren when they were young~ it's a very special time.

I have invited you and Cuppa for a chat at my place.