A Week of Firsts

First laundry on the line for this year!   Up until two days ago, we still had snow on the ground.  The ground was still frozen and along with the melting snow, we had tons of rain.   Because the water had no place to soak into, we had unexpected waterfront property as the small river raced through our backyard, through the chicken coop and into the neighbours field.    It's starting to dry up now, thankfully but still too wet and mucky to rake the leaves off the flower beds or get into the garden.  I'm refusing to use the dryer again until the fall as even with the cooler temperatures, the laundry is drying fairly quickly.  Today was 3C and still have the most yummy smelling, dry towels and jeans!

Well, I did peak into the garden.   Pulling back a tiny bit of the straw mulch, exposed a wonderful first garlic sprout.  I'm guessing or at least hoping that under the rest of the straw are more, but it's too muddy to check and they're better off left to do their own thing.  I'm sure by next week or so, I'll be able to see the sprouts through the straw.   There is a 4 x 5 patch of garlic this year.  I hope it does as well as last year. 

The first campfire of the year!   Okay, so it's not really a campfire as we're not toasting marshmallows, sitting in comfy chairs or pretending we can play musical instruments around the fire.  The guys are clearing out "stuff" from the rest of the little barn, that we use as a chicken coop.  It's filled with odds and ends from the previous owners.   Single pieces of wood, not large enough for any decent project apparently, so they're getting burnt, along with the winter fall branches which have accumulated over the snowy months.   Hopefully soon we'll be able to get back to our good weather routine of having a campfire every Friday evening.

This Downy Woodpecker is the first bird other than the Chickadees who would let me get close enough to get a good photo.   It's one of those moments that I'd love to have a good zoom lens for my camera.  However, I'm not willing to compromise good glass for a cheap price, so it will have to wait a while longer.