Flowering Quince

Weeks are flying by at warp-speed, we're almost halfway March already and winter is quickly slipping through my fingers!
Being a Fall/Winter person I'm so not looking forward to the summer, and I really am also not a big fan of Spring.
Mainly because it means summer is coming, but also because the light is getting this brightness to it, which hurts my sensitive eyes and I also don't like those in-between temperatures. It's getting too warm for jeans and a sweater but it's still too cold for my skirts and dresses.

I do like the awakening of nature though and I'm on a constant lookout for anything that might bud or flower.
Like this little yard I found in the neighborhood, full of daffodils, hyacinths and a huge big clump of Snowdrops!

 

The first flowering trees are starting as well; I think the one on the left is a wild Service-berry and the one on the right a Cherry tree ..

  

Since I still don't walk (yes, let's not talk about it anymore already) I actually took the car and drove around the neighborhood to take these pictures.
All good and well, but driving and sightseeing at the same time is not my strongest suit to begin with, and if you add turning around and backing out of Doug's neighbor's driveway in the mix, you have a recipe for disaster on your hand .. which happened .. of course ..

I have to say it could have been worse, because despite knocking over the mailbox (and breaking the post) and busting my tail light (Sh*t!) at least I didn't end up in the ditch.
Oh well, things happen.
James went over to make things right (digging a new hole, pouring concrete and placing a new pole). Moving on, shall we ..

Our weekly Wednesday-night dinner out wasn't a very happy experience either, I must say.
We went to the Barley & Vine Tavern on main street:

              

  

They have lots of beer and wine from all over the world which you can pair with some good looking cheese and meat platters, but the rest of the menu turned out to be very limited.                        

  

We went for two of the sandwiches that were just OK, which were served with an insane amount of blah potato-chips, for what we ended up paying $14 a piece! Jeez .. what a rip-off!
OK, that one goes off the list.

Let's see, what's next? O, yeah, James bought a new, curved computer screen.
Now he's starting to do more and more of the paperwork that involves appraisals, he'd like to be able to work from home on some of it.
That way he can do it whenever he wants, like when he has an hour or so to spare in the evening or weekend or when he's up early in the morning, and doesn't have to go over to Doug (and invade his privacy).

      

James had measured everything to make sure it would fit ..  the plan was to slide it into the cabinet next to the TV.
      
                    

Only to realize on arrival that it had to be mounted on a stand, which of course raised it several inches ... right.
It took both of us racking our brains to come up with a solution, and in the end he just cut of a piece of the stand and mickey-moused the whole thing together again .. (bring in the tie-rips!)

The opening was so tight it pretty much got sucked in place, but when it was in it had some room to spare, so .. success!

As a reward I baked some strawberry-rhubarb (his favorite concoction) hand-pies.



Despite the disaster zone afterward they were delicious!

  

Talking about kitchens and disasters .. the dishwasher has given up the ghost! Bummer!
I still use it as a 'waiting to be washed' area but eventually I have to do them by hand of course. How primitive!
I'm on the lookout for a new (to us), used one on Craigslist/marketplace, but since we need a small /apartment size, 18"-wide one, they don't come by very often. (New ones are insanely expensive due to the special size)

Last but not least some good news, Oregon has lifted the mask mandate. Yahoo!

 

It was in the works for a couple of weeks now, and they finally decided enough was enough. Cool!
I mean, I was all for it and it really didn't bother me much besides fogged up reading glasses
and having more difficulty hearing what people said (since I'm rather deaf to begin with), but I'm just as glad to kick them to the curb.
I put them away in a drawer for 'you never know' though .. let's keep our fingers crossed.