The ornamental cherry on the property is already flowering! 

Well, I learned something new this week! 'Never too old' I guess ...
Apparently, the start of spring can be defined in two different ways: meteorologically or astronomically. Astronomical seasons differ from meteorological seasons because equinoxes and solstices define them. Meteorological seasons are based on weather patterns and cycles, which is why the dates differ.
Because of the elliptical shape of the Earth's orbit, the lengths of the astronomical seasons are not uniform, they vary between 89 and 93 days. 
Meteorologists do not like this variation. Therefore, they came up with meteorological seasons, which last exactly 3 months, year after year.

So it largely depends on whether you follow the weather changes or where the earth is in its orbit around the sun.
Meteorological spring begins on March 1, while astronomical spring starts around March 20.

          

Regardless ... signs of Spring are 'springing up' around here! 
Besides the white Cherry in our own yard, there's a much more pink one in the neighbor's yard as well.

And the first Daffodils are flowering:

                                                            


Here's another sign ... I broke my 'winter' mug ... yup, time to switch to a more spring-like one!



Since the weather had been good for a couple of days, that is .. it didn't rain, and hopefully all the mud had dried up a bit, we decided to go for a walk on Sunday.

But of course not before we had some coffee first!
This time we tried yet another coffee place we hadn't been before, the Bad Dog Bakery in McMinnville.
They had a food cart for several years, building a loyal following, consistently selling out of their delicious breakfast sandwiches. 

 

About a year ago they teamed up with Summon Coffee,  a small-batch roastery and coffee shop, and now share a space in the same building, offering 'a welcoming space where coffee and pastry lovers unite'.

The interior is rather sparse, typical for the industrial trend of these days of painted concrete and mismatched, simple and mostly re-used furniture.

It's a little too 'cold' for me and the coffee, as is often with these popular newfangled and hyped up 'small batch' roasts (or wines, or breads or cheeses etc, etc), was not quite my taste either, as in (in this case) too 'harsh/bitter'.
Why try so hard these days to change so many things that were just fine as they were?
(And lots of people claiming that, 'oh yeah, this is so much better'. Really?) 

Fortunately the pastries were excellent ... although basically variations of either donuts or cinnamon rolls. 
Sigh, I guess I miss the European 'gebakjes', like these ...

                                       

OK, enough drooling over (not to be) pastries, I swear, I gained a few pounds just posting these pictures ... time to hit the trails!

To do so we drove to Miller Woods, a beautiful park about 15 minutes outside of Mcminnville. 
This 130-acre Conservation Area was donated to the Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District by Frieda Miller in 2004. 
It's composed of pasture and hay fields, shady woodland and conifer plantations with a few old-growth Douglas-firs still standing.

 

We decided to hike half of the 4.5 mile outer loop today, leaving the other half for when we return. Something we quickly realized we certainly will do, it's so beautiful here!
  

This gorgeous oak, one of a pair actually, flanks the main trail from its start out of the parking lot:

The trails lead you through a varying landscape. The perimeter loop (4.5 miles) is mostly in wooded areas on a packed dirt path, circling, and at certain point traversing, some large, open meadows and fields.

 

The place is covered in birdhouses, they're everywhere! 
Alongside a path through one of the meadows a whole row of Blue-bird houses were placed on poles. 
I used the maximum zoom on my camera to take a picture of what I thought was a blue bird sitting atop one of them, but what actually turned out to be a Kestrel:

                                                 

There were tens of chickadee-size nesting boxes hanging from trail-side trees.
None of them showed any sign of life yet ... we definitely have to come back a little later this Spring!

            

We enjoyed the beautiful rustic trails throughout the woods, alongside small creeks and over several bridges.

                 

    

                  
We sat down on several of the many benches, listening to the quiet of the forest around us. 
It was incredibly peaceful ..

Deer are common here, and rather unafraid of hikers and we actually saw two of them.

                      

Eventually we ended up at Otter pond where the first flowers of the Western Skunk Cabbage were opening. 
(The plant is called skunk cabbage because of the distinctive "skunky" odor that it emits when it blooms.)

                               

Like I said, we'll go back for sure. 
This turned out to be a real gem of a place and we still have the other half to explore!