Spring is Truly Here

All our snow is gone!   Even the lakes are starting to thaw a little around the edges.  Yesterday it got to 73 degrees.  Everyone was crazy outside, enjoying the grand weather.   Today wasn't bad either.   I washed my car - probably a waste of time since we are in the midst of the mud season - but it rained hard last night and even though most of the car got clean, the bottom was still completely muddy.   At least I got the winter salt and sand washed off.  Poor little Toyota Echo has 206,000 miles on it, hail damage, a broken headlight from hitting a deer this winter, a hood dent from the same deer, and rust spots all over.  My "new" car has now achieved beater status.  It is still the newest car we own.
     Harold got out the new lawn mower and put the mower deck on it, and checked everything over.  Probably a little early for that, but it felt good to dream about using the new mower on tall green grass anyway.
     The chickens have been running around the yard for a while now.    For some reason today they were very camera-shy, but I took a photo of most of them anyway.

The 'girls' were very afraid of the camera today!

I learned something new today!  While walking in the woods I took a photo of this bunch of fungus mushrooms growing on a stump.   According to the internet and my field guide book, these are called Coreolis Versicolor  Supposedly they show some potential for fighting certain types of cancer, and have been used for a while in Asian medicine for that purpose.   The American Cancer Society has not approved of this use yet, but they admit that in certain trials, extracts from this mushroom do seem to prevent certain cancer cell growth for breast, lung and intestinal cancers.   It's an interesting concept to think that there is a cure for cancer in my back yard, but.......I'll wait for further tests.  Here is what it looks like:

This fungus grows everywhere in our woods. 

Remember the photos I posted a while back of the "Beautiful Northwoods"?  Well, here is what it looks like today - no more snow, the trails are clear and ready for a springtime hike!  And no ticks yet!  No mosquitoes either!

Not real pretty yet, but soon there will be green leaves and wildflowers. 

I miss our horses.  About this time of year they always loved walking around the pasture and rolling around on the warm grass after a long winter.   I took a walk in the pasture today - the only thing there now is the "old farm machinery graveyard".  I think every old farmstead has a field full of this kind of stuff - a picturesque memory of days gone by.........

Vintage horse drawn machinery

And finally, here is one of our lakes, just about ready to ice out.  Maybe in a couple more weeks, the ice will be gone and the geese and the trumpeter swans will be back.  Maybe the loons, too.

The lake is already melting around the edges.  Very quiet now until the birds come back. 

How wonderful to know that we survived another long winter, spring is here, and the promise of new growth is just around the corner!