Except the he was dining on my greenery and ignored my encouragement to leave.
Adirondacks
Furry and feathered friends
An oblivious cat.
Enough weather
This is my last weather post for a while. It should settle into normal spring weather at this point, right? No more snow. 
Good old thunderstorms instead.
We had a slew of visitors, 4 sets, last week! The first set arrived the day we learned our well had bacteria in it. Ouch. I began boiling water and advising guests. Then the rains came and the rivers rose.
It was very dramatic at the local gorge.
I found a quiet moment or two to get back to spinning. The funny thing is, I don’t think I took this photo but there it was, on my camera. Very nice. Andre?
I am spinning a local alpaca fleece from the lock. I washed it last year or so and now I just grab a lock, flick it on a brush and spin away. I have been plying it with some Blue Faced Leicester and may dye it with my lichen stash. What will it be, what will it be?
The Indigo Bunting woke me yesterday and I managed to get a better photo of it later in the day. Dawn is about 4:30 here and the birds sing their little hearts out. Better than an alarm clock but I wish I could set it a little later.
Sailing with snowy mountains in the background
Yesterday, Memorial Day, a dry high pressure finally moved in and we went sailing. The temperature was in the mid 60’s, like a nice fall day where I come from. We donned sweaters and I considered, but did not wear, long johns.
It was lovely; early on Lake Champlain, which rose a foot after the week of rain. Little to no boat traffic and we ate lunch in a quiet, picturesque harbor.
In the distance, there was snow on the mountains in New York and Vermont.
Snow day
Too bad the kids have off for Memorial Day. They might have had a snow day.
30 inches in the mountains yesterday! This photo was taken from @SkiWhiteface, the Whiteface Mountain Twitter page, on May 25, 2013.
More spring visitors
Avian and mammal. Spring brings feathered friends and family. All welcome.
Bluebirds found the new house by the cabin and are making a nest. 
My sister-in-law and I walked through the grasslands and she spotted a Chestnut sided warbler by the road. You can just make it out hidden to the left in the brambles. It’s not the large tan leaf in the upper right
. 
She also spotted an Indigo bunting just outside our screened in porch.
The lilacs are in bloom all around us. Their scent is the harbinger of spring. With nice weather, cool (40f) nights, visitors return to the Adirondacks in heaps. I love hosting guests during this time of year although there was snow in the forecast for tonight (Memorial Day Weekend)!
So I clean my house before guests arrive. Tim likes to wait until they leave. Any thoughts?
//
http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js
Spring is in the air
The weather has warmed up – a bit too much – and spring is in the air. Yesterday, the high temperature was 85 degrees f and the low was 35 f – a whopping 50 degree spread. What to wear? Actually, we don’t even notice the cool nights, except we sleep well, or I do anyway. We’re outside doing all sorts of projects – Tim is working on his cabin; I’ve been trying to figure out what are weeds and what are not; and the boat is ready to launch.
Trees are blooming and love is in the air (and in the hills). I see a heart in the trees.
Our first Humming bird returned, Bluebirds are checking out the boxes (including the Purple Martin house, which is supposed to be used by Purple Martins) and Eastern Phoebes keep trying to build a nest inside our porch. It’s complicated when the birds refuse to keep to their own neighborhoods. Goldfinch are wearing their bright yellow feathers and are so colorful.
It’s so nice outside, I haven’t been doing any quilting or weaving. I still do laundry though and love to dry clothes outdoors on a windy day. I may find clothing scattered around the lawn, but they smell nice.
One of my favorite pictures is my porch swing in the snow. Here it is in the spring.
Time to go enjoy another day.
I stand corrected
The other day, I waxed on about Spring’s arrival to the North Country. Not so fast.
Mountain Man proposed a hike to Scarface, a relatively diminutive peak by Adirondack standards, so I said yes. A nice Spring walk. NOT!
There was an icy “spine” most of the way and I clumped along in snowshoes. It was Spring after-all and i left my micro spikes home. I can only speak of most of the way, because when it became too gnarly by my standards, I turned back and headed away from the hills.
That’s Spring in the Adirondacks.
My walk out provided plenty of time to collect a pocketful of lichen, which had fallen off the trees, and to contemplate rocks.
I may not see dead people but I do see things in rocks.
When you have lemons
When you have snow…go skiing. Travel and surgery caused me to miss the past two winters. I downhill skied once 3 years ago, traveled to Australia in 2010 and was on crutches in 2011.
Yet a beautiful mountain is only 30 minutes away. And we just had 16 inches of fresh snow. And it was midweek. I gave it a try on Wednesday and was reminded how much I enjoy it. Best of all, my ankle worked ( the one that had me on crutches last winter).
What fun, even if my style hasn’t changed in 40 years. I tried out the newfangled skis, shorter than me, had a group lesson, which turned out to be a group of only me, and relished the day. Sweet.
I returned yesterday with DH who immediately wanted to go to the top – he’s a mountain hiker after all. Even though I had been to the summit, three years ago on my one day skiing, I balked.
Some male-female dynamics automatically triggered in my brain and I resisted, initially. Perhaps I have been led astray in the past? Lets just say I had not been to an ER before I met DH and now I have been there twice; first due to broken face in a boating accident; and then due to an ankle injury, which occurred while following him up one of his high peaks. Just sayin’.
So away we went and it was lovely. I’m sold. And I didn’t visit the ER. The view of Lake Placid was stunning.
I’ll be back today after a half day of work. After all, we have snow.
Snow is in the forecast but the birds are unaware
The temperature is below freezing again but hasn’t stopped the bird migration. It seems every day we hear new songs and see more species at the feeder. This morning a flock of common redpolls stopped by for a frenetic visit. Mourning doves have returned and their song echoes in the woods.
Today a plump, Tufted Titmouse was stopped by and settled in the tree among the spring buds.
As long as the birds don’t care about our Hazardous Weather Outlook, neither will we.
Island and North Country Life 