It's been a cloudy and at times rainy week again, but not as bad as they predicted.
I guess you have to see a silver lining in the fact that it rains just a little ..
I've heard this is the first spring in two or three years that we're not starting the season with a water shortage. I can't say I'm surprised!

It was actually dry on some of my morning walks. I've been exploring an area a little further up (or actually down) the road:

                       

                       

At the bottom of this hill the road splits into different paths that look like they all dead-end into driveways, so I'm a little reluctant to push too far and end up on somebody's property.
Big, scary watch dogs are my biggest concern, but there's always the chance of a crazy gun-slinging recluse as well ..

I came across some deer prints:

                                                                           

They're around, although I haven't seen one yet, and lately people are seeing cougars on a regular base quite close to here.
The deer, elk and cows are calving and the 'cats' are on the hunt!

The Oregon Grape is starting to flower:

                

And there are still a lot of these double, ruffled Daffodils growing in the berms of our road. No clue how they've gotten there since it's a rural road and I don't think anybody planted them there?
They don't do very well inside but I can't resist bringing some new ones in once they're fading.

                                           

Business is picking up considerably at the moment, we went from a handful in January and February to 24 appraisals in March! Now we're talking!

'The office' is not done yet so James is still working from the RV. This is how he's set up in the corner of the RV ... he'll be so happy when he finally will get more room!

Since he's using the dining room table to spread everything out I'm using that folding-table to puzzle.
I finished another 500 piece one. Much smaller than what I'm used to (1000 pieces) but not much easier!

               

Daylight saving time has started and of course it's now a lot longer light.
We even managed to have happy hour outside one evening. Still sweater weather but very comfortable!
We're sitting on the pond-side here, facing the south-west:



                                              

The weather has improved a lot over the last 2 days and they're forecasting a beautiful, sunny Easter.
We haven't planned anything, other than playing some golf and I bought a lamb roast, so it hopefully will be a quiet, peaceful weekend.

We'll keep our fingers crossed!

It's Spring again! Joining the early cherry trees that are now flowering everywhere, this little pear in our landlord's yard is blossoming as well.

Little spring flowers in the meadows are a sure sign of the weather warming up, like these Western Buttercups:

                                              

Due to the mild weather there's a lot of Purple Dead-nettle already:

Maybe this is the year I'll collect a bunch and make  salve, it's supposed to be anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal and antibacterial and can be used on cuts and wounds to help stop the bleeding. Historically, it was even used to alleviate joint pain.

           

The Weeping (white) Willows I photographed a couple of weeks ago are showing their yellow catkins, which by the way appear on separate male and female trees.

 

Male catkins are 2” long and somewhat showy, having tiny flowers with yellowish anthers and two stamens. Female catkins are smaller and non-showy, with greenish flowers.
I suppose these are both male trees?

                                                                      

The first purple flowers of Vinca (Periwinkle) are popping up as well near the spring in the bottom field. They love wet feet ..

I finally got a shot of one of the local squirrels. I'd seen them 'squirreling' around out of the corner of my eye once or twice but didn't really cross their paths until now.



It's an Eastern Fox Squirrel, intentionally introduced to urban areas in the early 1920s as pets and watchable wildlife, but rapidly becoming the most common backyard squirrel in the Portland area and believed to have contributed to the decline of native squirrel species.

So .. an imposter! But such a cute one!

                                                

Being notorious for willy-nilly burying their winter-stash of acorns and than forget about them I was happy to see that this one DID remember!
For some reason they still haven't found the peanuts I set out for them?
                                          
                        

James, with a little help from me, myself and I, has been 'making hay while the sun shines' and first put a primer on the shed/office:

Followed by the first of two finish-coats of 'Hunter' green:

                                                                 

Just in time for the rain to arrive on Thursday!

Or actually, just in time for his medical appointment on Thursday, I should say!
Turning 65 and all signed up for Medicare, he is having a whole bunch of preventive stuff done now it's covered by his insurance.
He already had a physical (all good) and routine blood-work (slightly higher cholesterol but most likely improvable by watching what he eats a little better), PSA (prostate-cancer test) was totally fine as well, a coronary calcium scan of his heart (no deposits at all), an eye exam (only slightly worse) and new glasses, and last Wednesday it was time for a Colonoscopy!

        

Not the nicest of all exams but a lot less 'intense' than it used to be. The 2 days of prepping are the worst, but he thought it wasn't bad at all and according to him the actual procedure was a breeze.
The fact that nowadays they put you under for about 15 minutes is probably a game-changer!

Nothing untoward was found and he doesn't have to worry about having another one done for 10 years which apparently not too many people are advised to do, especially in his age-group.
I guess, he now can brag like 'Maxine':

There's one more appointment left on the books, this time for the dermatologist.
He has a few moles and spots he wants to have checked out. Skin cancer is a bitch, better safe than sorry!

We're at the beginning of what is predicted to be a full week of sunshine and blue skies with temperatures in the high 60s, low 70s!
I'll have to see it to believe it but so far so good, it's been absolutely gorgeous for the last two days.

    Signs of Spring are everywhere!      

              

                                         

Those are maple buds and 'flowers', they're early this year and hopefully there won't be another frost soon because they will freeze and not produce their fruits/seeds.

Daffodils are flowering in full, and due to the two sunny days we had I spotted the first Dandelions!

    

And in our neighbor's meadow the Black Angus herd is welcoming the first calves!

               

(I think these are actually already a couple of weeks old but I hadn't seen them out yet)

Our landlords took advantage of the weather and started to plant the first of 8000(!) pine trees they are going to plant all over the property:



A lot of it is done by a machine but there is some 'hands-on' involved as well:

    


It's their plan to retire from their roofing business in the coming couple of years and grow christmas-trees instead.
They're getting older and roofing is quite hard on the body whereas these trees, once established, are very low maintenance.

James has picked up where he left with working on the office before the rain started last week, and is progressing nicely.
The doors are in (one for the storage-side and one for the office side):

And the siding is on!
He also installed a small AC-unit, the sun will be baking on this south-west side!

And since we let no celebrations go by without joining in, especially when there's food involved, I made corned beef with 'all the trimmings' for St. Patrick's Day:

           
I baked an Irish soda bread as well.
It rose a little too well (I might have added a tablespoon of baking-soda instead of a teaspoon?) and than deflated so there was a crack all along the side, but it tastes just fine!

                                                         

St Patrick, who actually wasn't even Irish, is known for bringing Christianity to Ireland but one of the most popular myths about the Irish saint is that he rid the country of snakes, however modern science has since ruined that belief for everyone.
As Ireland has always been an incredibly cold country, scientists have said that it's highly unlikely that there were any snakes to begin with and there are no fossils to disprove the theory.

It makes for funny cartoons though:

                                                   

And that's it for the week.
Hopefully another 5 more days to go before the rain will be back.
We'll see, we're going to try to get the office watertight and painted before that, so .. back to work!

 

We had a couple of nice days this week witch made for clear nights with frosty mornings.
Sunrises are particular colorful on such days and I managed to snap some shots ..
(imagine me running out, straight out of bed, buck-naked but for my winter-coat just to catch some colors)

                       

                                        

Abiding by the saying 'make hay while the sun shines' James attacked the office project with renewed vigor:

 

Two walls are up with siding and two without, the roof is on and covered with self-adhered roofing underlayment, and since rain is in the forecast again everything is swaddled with waterproof house-wrap.

Not to be accused of sitting idle and motivated by all this building-business, I 'build' something myself!

I'd ordered a small greenhouse through Amazon ($32) and it arrived disassembled so I had to put it together:

Fortunately this was even simpler than an IKEA package, no screws or tools necessary, and it took me only 30 minutes or so ..

 

It's not the sturdiest contraption, basically all lightweight tubes and a plastic cover, so I placed it on the south side of the RV, in a corner between the slide and the back where it (hopefully) is protected from most of the wind and weather.

I've started to sow my first batch of 'cold-weather' vegetable seeds, as in leek, broccoli, kale etc, who'll be ready to go outside in about a week or four, as well as warm blooded peppers and tomatoes who'll need a much longer to be big enough to be transferred outside.

I'm trying these newfangled seedling trays with high humidity domes that have adjustable humidity vents AND grow (LED) lights at the top:

   

And since we're still rather cold here in the Northwest I've placed the trays on heat-mats as well.

 

I've seldom been lucky growing my own seeds, and I don't have high hopes this time will be any better, but you can't say I didn't try!

Actually, now I think about it, I have been successful in growing these 'sprouts' indoors  so maybe there's hope?

And since the weather was so nice I'd come up with the plan to throw something on the BBQ for the first time this season, but when we were ready to do so we discovered we didn't have enough gas-line to hook it up!

Bummer! Oh, well a healthy salad (Niçoise) with eggs and tuna was a nice stand-in, we're cutting down on meat anyways ..                 

             
         

Tonight we're 'springing an hour forward' to begin Daylight saving time!
James is thrilled but I'm no fan. I think standard time is much more in sync with my biological clock but I guess it is what it is ..