Spring Flowers

It may not be " True Spring" yet but it is to me.  The daffodils are blooming!!!! They are all along the sides of the roads and in people's yards. Soon they will be in the house, the porches, the explorer, the truck and even in my kayak ( when we take them out soon).   I have many favorite flowers and daffodils are one of them.  I think it's because they don't grow in Florida and I love the shape of them.  Another favorite, is pansies.  Those do grow in Florida, but not for a long period of time. ( too hot)  Pansies are planted everywhere up here.  You plant them in the fall and they last through the cold winter and well into summer.  We may get another "frost" before Spring is truly here but I can see it peeking around the corner. 

Brushy Lake

First daffodil

one of the trees that a beaver decided to chew on.

Brushy Lake

Dried Mountain Laurel by the dam.

Before heading for home after we went to the Natural Bridge, we stopped at Brushy Lake and walked the paved path to the dam. We had been to Brushy Lake before, but never took the time to see the dam. Today, we also saw a couple of trees, where a beaver decided to chew on them and our first daffodils, blooming. On our drive back through the forest, we went by "The Church of the Forest" and an old lumber mill where the trucks loaded with logs were waiting in line to unload. Remember when Chuck said we weren't going to be gone long so we didn't need to pack lunch? Well, it was way past lunch time, so on the way home, we stopped and had a cat fish/oysters lunch at John's. A great way to end our day of paved paths adventures.

Natural Bridge

standing under the bridge

Poor tree!

After visiting the oldest jail, we found the "natural bridge". There was a paved path leading to it. It did go up and down hill a lot since the bridge was over a canyon. There were steps to climb to get to the bridge. We're not used to having such comforts when we hike...ha. My pictures never show how massive things are in the forest. I wish everyone who reads my blog could see it all in person.

Oldest Jail in Alabama

The hole in the wall.....

all the nails in the walls and ceilings

I got my morning coffee and went to the living room to watch the early morning news, like every morning and Chuck says to me, " lets go see the natural bridge in the forest" today. I asked him if I should pack us a picnic lunch and he said...."naaa, we won't be gone long". So, we ate breakfast, got dressed and headed out. On the way to the bridge, we saw the sign for the " oldest jail in Alabama" and turned to go find it. It wasn't far and something very interesting to see. It consisted of two rooms with each room having bared windows and a hole carved on one wall, for the men to " pee" through. Guess they used buckets for the " other". ...ewwwww! There were a gazillion nails in all the boards so the inmates couldn't saw through or pull the boards down to escape. The sign had some interesting facts about the jail and we enjoyed seeing and reading about it.

Getting ready!

It's time to get the gardens ready to plant. We cleaned the main garden out...pulling up the old cabbage and collard plants. I pulled all the old bean and weed vines off of the wires to the trellis's. We had to wait a day before it could all be tilled because it was too wet. Chuck spent the next day tilling it all. This was only the first till, to turn it all over before the next frost so the cold will kill the bugs and seeds that have been in the ground all winter. Next, we will put all the compost that we have been collecting for a year all over the top and then we will till again. The plants are all going to LOVE all that chicken poop from the "girl's mansion". Just before we plant, we will till again. That should do it! Then, let the planting begin! I plan on planting the first of April in hopes that one last frost won't sneak up on us. I will have lots of fun help with my planting this year....Shell and Genavive will help and Lady Melanie is coming up to plant the " watermelon patch". She is even bringing the seeds and baby powder. ( you put baby powder on the melons to keep the animals from eating them....a lady at our local farmer's market told me that, last summer) I came up with the idea of using the two big pallets that something came on for building the house, as fence pieces in one of the corners of the front yard. It gives us something to put our "bluebird house" on and a back drop for anything else I want to hang. I planted one of the crape myrtles that I've had in pots for about four years now....just waiting to be planted on the land, in the corner. ( I have three more in pots to be planted somewhere) I bought some "peonies tubers" to plant on each side of the crape myrtle. I can just picture how pretty everything is going to be once Spring comes and they all start growing again.

Snow = Forest

Geocache treasure

Finding the geocache

walking behind the small waterfall


Since it snowed probably for the last time this winter, we decided to go spend the afternoon in the forest. The snow just makes everything look so different. The icicles are just beautiful! It wasn't hard hiking to the canyon because there was a path through a forest of pines. Chuck said it was like hiking on our land. Now, once we reached the canyon that was a different story. The path was right on the edge and it was very slippery with the snow on top of the fallen leaves. I sat on my butt and slid a lot. I finally made it down though and it was well worth it as it always is. First there was a five tier cascade that went down to the bottom of the canyon. Then, we had to walk behind a small waterfall to get to the big waterfall. On the way, we found the geocache that was hidden near the falls. It was an easy one to find...but still fun. I put a key chain in the can and took out a pair of toe warmers. Sure needed them yesterday. The large falls were so pretty! We are planning on taking Shell and Genavive to them, this Spring when they come up. After enjoying the falls, we went back to the beginning of the canyon and had our winter picnic lunch of soup, chips and hot tea. Then, it was time to head back. It was a lot easier to climb up the canyon than sliding down it so it didn't take long at all to get back to the truck. I'm sure glad that I decided to get dressed and go out in the snow instead of just sitting in front of the fire and looking at it out the windows for the day. We made another beautiful memory in the forest.

One more time!

daffodils coming up in the snow

Mother Nature decided that we should have one more pretty snow fall for the season and it happened last night. When we woke up this morning, about three inches of snow covered everything again. As I was sitting on the couch in front of a fire in the fireplace, looking out all four living room windows at the snow, I was trying to decide if I wanted to just stay put in the nice warm house and enjoy the view or if I should go get dressed and go out in the snow. After all, who knows when we will get a nice snow like this again. Getting dressed won out. It was a dry, powdery snow, so we couldn't build one last snowman. After walking around in the snow, we walked over to the BNOE and visited for a few minutes ( since they canceled school for the day) before we decided we should take off to the forest for the rest of the day. We came home, packed an " eat in the snow picnic" and headed out.

Map Puzzle

Remember the house warming present (the puzzle of the map of our land) that Gene and George gave us a ways back? Well, I decided when we got the " major winter storm" of 8 1/2 inches of snow, it would be a good time to put the puzzle together. After all, you can only spend so much time out in the snow having fun. Let me tell you! It wasn't an easy puzzle but it was fun. There wasn't a picture of it on the box like regular puzzles so Chuck kept bringing up the map of our land on the computer so he could look at it. I ended up getting a lot of the pieces by looking at the shapes of the pieces. It took us a week to get it all together. Gene said theirs was hard and it took them awhile too. Well, one morning, I came out and Chuck had finished the puzzle BUT...there was a piece MISSING!!!!! Right in the middle !!!! I couldn't believe it. I was so upset. We wanted to frame it. ( I know...I hate it when people frame puzzles too but this one is different) Lady Melanie happened to be here spending the weekend with us and the next day, she was sitting on the couch and when she stood up, the puzzle fell onto the floor from the couch. I was sooooooooo happy that she found the piece!!!! It's now glued, framed and hanging on the wall in Chuck's room. It's the neatest puzzle we have ever done. Thank you again Gene and George!