A Brief Taste of Spring

Yesterday morning, I headed out for morning chores to see rising sun...

which was actually shining...

and my heart sang!

Blue sky, warm breezes, rays of sunshine reaching down to touch the soggy earth...

it was a taste of spring in the middle of winter.

For the first time in months,

I worked to the song of robins... more robins than I could count...

busily enjoying their wormy breakfasts in the pastures.

We walked the horses up to the upper pastures as a treat...

a sunny morning to enjoy before the next four days of rain arrive.

Their hooves squish-squished in the spongy earth.

The earth just cannot hold another drop of water!

This is what happens to horses this time of year...

Yikes!   I need to ride him through a car wash!!

After so many mucky days, sunshine doesn't go un-noticed!

Everyone was out running around in the sunshine yesterday.

And believe it or not... by afternoon the thermometer read 77 degrees!

Winter is not over... we still have March weather ahead of us...

but what a wonderful taste of spring we had yesterday.

Even the garden began to wake-up just a little!

I spent several hours off the farm taking care of one of my Littles...

who was home with croup....

but before I left for town, mixed up a batch of sourdough bagels and set them on the counter to

rise for the day.

While I was gone, Hubbs mixed up a loaf of sourdough bread and set it out to rise.

(He's been studying bread baking, amongst other things, in his retirement.)

By late afternoon, the bagel dough was ready and we cut the dough...

formed it into bagel shapes...

boiled it and baked it...

Not bad for our first attempt.

As for Hubbs' bread...

Beautiful!