Spring!

With bated breath & some tiny bit of uncertainty, because you never can tell what mother nature will do next, i can say that i really truly think that spring has finally decided to grace us with her warm and green presence!

Clearwater is for the most part free of snow (with the exception of a few sunless patches here and there) and slowly but surely growing springier ever day! robins are out in force, green buds are popping up and even some leaves are slowly showing their tiny selves to the world. my rhubarb is budding out all ruby red and sweet! and Ive discovered a huge patch of raspberries which I'm itching to get to. they need to be pruned back and thinned a wee bit...but it looks like we will be drowning in raspberry jam & other yummy things come summer!

Easter came and went in a fury of cut-out-cookies and icing, dyed Easter eggs, chocolate and sunshine.. our Easter tree is still adorning out kitchen window and in leaf too! we chose a piece of red willow tree and sure enough its doing its springtime thing too, just in our kitchen.

Seedy Saturday was amazing..the ski-lodge where it happens every year was full to brimming with friendly, smiling faces.. seeds and plants and good things to eat and smell and touch were all around. it gave me more than a bit of nostalgia, thinking of leaving this town..and i may even be re-thinking it. it is hard to know why my feet get so itchy every spring, but i may try to talk myself out of leaving just now. not only that but it looks like Kaslo is a bumping place and there is nothing available in terms of homes for us there. it wouldn't be so bad staying here, planting a garden..maybe getting our chickens finally! i dint know for sure, but i think for the summer at least i can safely say that we will be staying put. i kind of dread spending another winter here, but on the other hand Kaslo has just as long and cold a winter as here. maybe we just need to find a house with a wood stove!
i bought a bunch of new varieties of tomatoes to try and and some wild Italian arugula! a few new house plants..a wandering Jew & an angel wing begonia. Ive always wanted one!
mm..and some vanilla goats milk soap. divine.
I'm so looking forward to the farmers market starting up again so that i can see all of my favorite folks again. winter gets lonely!

Yesterday we spend a beautiful day visiting a local sheep ranch with Elwynn's school. Aveley ranch has been in Vavenby for 103 years! and you can feel the wisdom and love for the land when you step foot there. I was completely and utterly (hehe!) taken with the place. something about hundreds of tiny lambs does that to a person.

Our day was full-to-brimming with information about sheep and lambs, and how wool is processed.. the kids got to try out hand and drum carders and spinning wheels and what-not. we watched a lamb being born out in one of the fields, right up close! it was a very new experience for some of the children! we had a hayride all around the land, which is vast and stunning..there were scones and tea in this neat old pioneers shack, a museum of sorts all about the history of the land and family and then they all make sweet wooden boats and raced them down a fast flowing little stream. it was such a great time! i think that the favorite of all was the snuggling and feeding of the newborn orphan lambs. i could have stayed there forever!
here are a few photos of our adventure..