The days are getting longer, temperatures are high, birds are singing and If you look closely, most trees are starting to look a little green at the moment ...

Every day I find more buds budding ...

And new flowers are popping up everywhere ...

       
                                                      Loblolly Bay

Too bad we won't be here when the Blackberries are ripe because whole fields of them are flowering!

Birds are busy claiming their territories, they're singing their little hearts out, especially in the morning.

The mornings are still crisp and cool though and this Cardinal looked like he was cold, as he sat all fluffed up in the Liquidambar tree in front of my window. 

As was this little Carolina Wren, looking like a powder ball ...

As it warms up during the day a few butterflies are starting to appear ...

I think this is a Juvenal's Duskywing up above, and the one below a Common Buckeye ...

Among the permanent residents here are a bunch of Peacocks, usually split up in a few separate 'musters' (groups), like this one that's all made up of young males:

They're starting to get their 'big-boy' feathers, and with Spring arriving and hormones flaring, they start to parade around, puff up and charge at each other to show off ...

But no one is a match for 'the BIG Boss' ...

   

He's the undefeated leader of the pack and regularly 'struts his stuff' to let everybody know who's in charge ...

He's gorgeous ... and he knows it!

I've been experimenting some more with my Instant Pot and thought I try my hand at making yogurt!

I never thought I'd ever make my own yogurt and technically it was of course the Pot who did most of the 'making', but look at this ... it worked!

All you have to do is throw a gallon of milk in the pot, push the 'yogurt' button and let it do its thing until it beeps. 

By than, the milk will be heated to 180 degrees, than you turn the pot off and let the milk cool to 115 degrees, after which you add your starter (1/4 cup of plain yogurt with live cultures) and start the pot up again. 

It will now take 8 hours to incubate after which you cool it overnight in the fridge for 8 to 10 hours.

And voila, you just made yogurt! It kinda feels like when Tom Hanks made fire in Castaway and bellowed: ...I !.. made fire! ...

I ... made yogurt ...!

I drained some of it for another hour to get the much thicker Greek-style yogurt. Delicious!

I also baked this (Wal)Nutty Shortbread that I cut into bars. 

Very simple, but because of the roasted nutty-ness, so very, very good!

James is still working hard and making good money, which helps to finally get caught up again with our finances. 

After the truck problems and James surgery we were running on 'fumes' for a while...!

We're golfing every weekend and with the weather warming up James needed to repair his golf sandals ...

The sole came undone so he needed to glue and clamp everything together ...

Could be the newest, hottest trend in golf foot-wear!

And last but not least, we finally got word from James boss Ronnie, that the new Petsense store in Leesville is a go, and we need to move there this weekend so he can start on Monday.

Yeah! I'm so happy! I've suffered from a bad case of hitch-itch for a couple of months now, and I'm so ready to see something new!

Bring it on!

We're leaving around 9am tomorrow morning and hopefully will be arriving in Leesville around 2pm in the afternoon.

It's a little 'backtracking' since Leesville is about 240 miles north-west of us. In fact, we drove by it when we came down to New Orleans two years ago!

We already picked out a campground and, most important, a golf course, and guess what .... they're next to each other!

Works for us!

See you in Leesville!