What a Beautiful Day!

Dirty, wet but happy dog

The sun is shining and it is warm outside. What a wonderful way to start the weekend. Willie and I went to a little diner down the street for breakfast and both ended up getting lunch instead. When we got home I took Bazinga out for a walk and  he'd no intention of coming back in. He wanted to be outside. He usually is very nervous on walks but today he was loving every step. He walked through puddles and over snow mounds. He didn't even notice the cars and trucks driving by to their Saturday activities. He stopped only to be admired by a neighbor. He sniffed and inspected and moved on to the next thing. As he walked along, being the mobile dust mop that he is, he picked up every little piece of dirt and grime in his path. He was one happy dog. He, now is one pooped out pup. A little disappointed that he is not allowed on the couch right now, but still sleeping happily on the floor.

Bazinga was not the only one to be happily out and about. The sunshine felt wonderful on my face. I was so excited to see the snow melting and quickly running down the street and into the storm sewers.


I found evidence of melting everywhere. Melting from the roof dripping down on to our completely iced over driveway. I am especially excited about that! We kind of have two driveways. One that comes up along side the house and one that goes into the detached garage. I like the drive next to the house when I have groceries to unload. I can pull up right next to the deck and unload. With it totally iced over I have to make fifty trips to the garage to unload. Oh, well, it isn't like I cant use the exercise. Every little drop that melts away is one drop closer to being able to use the drive again!

Bazinga is excited about all of the happy little surprise prizes hiding under the surface of the snow waiting for him to discover. My back yard is like one huge box of crackerjacks to him. New toys with every step and tasty snacks to give him the energy to go digging for more.

I think Willie is probably the most impatient for spring to finally get here. We have the biggest yard we have ever had. I know he is itching to get out and start making it his yard. Right now it still feels like someone else's yard. Well, if you don't count all of the Bazinga poo out there. Willie is a very accomplished gardener. I'm excited to see what he does with it.

One of the first things we will have to do is clean up the ginkgo nuts that litter the yard. We have a female ginkgo tree in our yard. I am excited to see it all leaved out. I have seen the fallen leaves and they are these big beautiful fan shaped leaves. I can't wait to see them green and new. In the fall they will be a brilliant yellow. I am not excited to clean up the nuts. If you have never see a ginkgo nut, like I hadn't before I moved here, a ginkgo nut is covered with a fleshy fruit. This fruit, STINKS! When I say stinks, I mean it smells like fermented dog crap that has been contaminated with sour milk and rotten meat! We thought, for about a minute, about taking the tree out because of this. Then we started researching ginkgo trees and realized this tree in our yard must be at least 150 years old. Ginkgoes are a slow growth tree, and ours is huge. It just wouldn't be right to take it out. So, we are going to have to find a happy compromise with this tree. In other words it will drop the stinky nuts and we will have to clean them up. Some compromise huh? It will be worth it though. Maybe I should get brave and figure out how to harvest the nuts. I've seen them for sale on the Internet for twelve dollars a pound.