Every year around this time, I start getting desperate for Spring.  The huge snowfall didn't help this year - we still had some snow in the backyard on Sunday (before the next winter storm hit....)

So I planted part of the garden.  I put in some lettuce, spinach and chard (only because it is so pretty - I don't really like it.)  Spring WILL be here - really!

Margene left me a greenhouse in a box when she moved, so I put it together this weekend, and got a bunch of seeds and some peat pots to plant them in.....

 

And then....the storm hit.  I haven't been out yet to see if the greenhouse has weathered the storm or not - I'm afraid to.  We had a huge windstorm come in yesterday, and lots of rain.  Spring is NOT here yet, and it doesn't look like it will be here for a while.  Bummer.

Since I was stuck inside on Sunday, I did some sewing - and had some companions in the sewing room.....

Alex and I took Luna and Koori for a walk at the Sundial Bridge today.  I took the day off of work today (the original plan was I was taking the whole week off, but I decided one day was good, for now...)  Lots of birds in and around the river...

And if you look through the trees, you'll see a very fluffy blue heron.....

Closer....

And I think he's cold.....I've never seen one quite so 'fluffy' before.

Alex and I took the dogs for a bike ride - the snow is gone, and we are back to Spring!

We have power!  We finally got power back Sunday afternoon- a little after 2:00.  All day Saturday we kept monitoring the PG&E website where they were estimating we would have power back by 8:01 p.m.  Around 4:00 p.m., the site suddenly changed from 530 houses affected by the power outage in my neighborhood to 19....and no estimate for those 19.  They didn't even have a idea what the problem was.  And yes, we were one of those 19 houses.  When I got up Sunday morning, still no update.  Around 9:00, there was a crew in the area, but still no update.  I think they finally updated the site around noon - still no estimate, but at least they acknowledged there were crews on site.  Finally, the lights came on!  Hallelujah!  Yes, we can manage to run the house with the generator, but it isn't my idea of a good time.....

Some photos of the snow:

The fence around the pool - you know it's wet snow when it builds up on a 3/4 inch fence this tall.....

The hummingbird feeder:

The heads by the fountain:

The Mazda - and no, I didn't drive it to work.  I did take the Volvo though - no power at work on Wednesday, so I got sent home.  We were able to open one branch around noon in the East side of Redding, but everyone else was closed.  We were able to open normally on Thursday, since City of Redding got power restored for our locations.  

The trees out front - we didn't lose many more branches than a normal wind storm, which surprised me.  There were trees down all over the neighborhood - a few of them into houses.

AJ took Luna out to the field to play in the snow....

Let's play "Good news, Bad news"!
Good news:  we got 12 inches of snow Tuesday night at our house.
Bad news:  we got 12 inches of snow at our house Tuesday night.
Good news:  the bank was closed Wednesday
Bad news:  the bank was closed Wednesday because they had no power and neither did we.
Good news: the new generator works great!
Bad news: the pellet stove fan died
Good news: we have a portable heater that works
Bad news: no internet
Good news: we have Dish and movies and the generator powers them
Bad news: I just heard we are not expected to have power back until Saturday
Good news:   Give me minute....I think I'm out of good news.....

Cindy sent me a picture of her place Sunday morning...

So I sent her a couple of pictures from mine.....

I had just finished pruning my rose bush - Cindy said she couldn't find her rose bushes if she tried......

The baby quilt is finished!  I really, really like how this one turned out, and how fast it went together.  Definitely a keeper pattern.

And on to the next quilt.  AJ requested a quilt for Wes, who's getting married this June.  AJ went with me to pick out the colors (which really means Nancy at the quilt shop picked them out, we just had the option to agree of disagree with her choices.)  Here's the fabric:

And here's the design on the wall.  I've started sewing the strips together already - another quick quilt.