Spring. Almost.

Our record-breaking, never-before-seen one inch of snow melted the same night it fell. Had my husband not taken pictures to prove the white stuff really did fall here, no one would have believed it. The photos looked like our house was dropped into the middle of a Christmas card, and one of my cousins suggested we use one of the photos for our own holiday cards next Christmas. Not a bad idea, actually.

The day after the snow fell, the temperature was at least 20 degrees higher and there wasn't a snowflake in sight. I was watching a local news channel that next morning and they were saying that native Texans who lived in towns that didn't get the snow were driving an hour or more to the snow-covered towns just so they could "see and experience" snow falling out of the sky. I guess I'm too jaded, after having seen major NY snowstorms over the years, and one inch of snow didn't seem worth a one-hour drive. But I guess if you've never seen snow before, the drive was worth their time.

Speaking of NY storms, they can't seem to get out from under the snow clouds up there. My cousins keep telling me of one storm after the other. No sooner do they dig out from one snowfall and they're getting ready for the next. I need to quit complaining about the weather here, that's for sure, because it can't compare in inconvenience and severity to what's going on in and around the Big Apple. (Do they still call NY The Big Apple these days?)


Our friends C and L stopped by yesterday for a surprise visit. They called me from a town about 40 minutes from here and asked if they could drive here and see us and the house. We haven't seen them since our big going-away party back in Clear Lake last year-- they've been busy building a new house of their own and the construction has been over-whelming and over-budget since they started. C had hoped to be in their new house for this past Christmas, but now she's hoping that her next Christmas tree will be put up in the "dream house." They loved this big old house, they were impressed with the acreage, and L was astounded that we had such a big barn. "Are you going to get livestock?" he wanted to know. Not this city girl.... I have enough trouble keeping up with the neighbors' livestock.

Our neighbors on the other side of the hill have horses and cows and goats, not to mention chickens and roosters. We give the horses sliced apples now and again, and sometimes they wait by the fence for us. This particular neighbor's cows never get out of their pasture, but the neighbor behind us has his cow pasture right adjacent to a pasture of ours, and time and again, one or two of his cows will get out and my husband goes out there and coaxes them back onto their own field. The neighbor with the goats--- we've chased those goats down our hill and up their own time and again. Some of the goats get their heads stuck in the fence (to get to the taller, greener grass) and we go out there and grab hold of their horns and sort of push their horns through the fence so they can get their heads back in there. When that doesn't work, we have to drive down our hill and up the neighbor's hill and tell them one or two of his goats are "stuck in the fence again" and then he comes down and frees up the goats. I swear, that neighbor raises those goats for meat, and I'm betting that the troublesome fence-sticking goats are the ones that end up in his cooking pot. (Which is why we try to free up the goats without telling him.)

So, given all of the above, I definitely don't need any livestock of our own in that big old barn of ours. Once again, I am so very glad that I came to my senses and didn't buy those miniature horses that we went to look at last summer. With this horrible (horrible for Texas) winter that we've had, there would have been no end in sight for me trying to keep the horses warm and out of the wind and the snow and the rain.

But....... the past couple of days have been like Spring. Before we know it, our fields will be covered with bluebonnets and these past few months will be a distant memory. Maybe not that distant, but far away enough that everyone will be welcoming the hot weather.

I have finished painting the TV room..... the peachy beige has grown on me and looks very nice. The hardest part was painting the trim in that room-- white on white isn't the easiest thing to do with paint, and after a while your mind gets numb. I was all set to put the can of peachy beige into the garage, in hopes of not picking up a paint brush anytime soon, and then I thought of using that paint to add some color to the wall behind the fireplace in our bedroom. That fireplace is original to the house, and it was probably a dark stained wood like the fireplace in the living room, but the previous owners painted it white. The white fireplace on the white wall gets lost... and the peachy beige color would make it "pop," as they say on HGTV. So I'm thinking about it..... I don't want to pick up that paint brush again until I'm sure I won't be disappointed with the color in there. Plus, I need a break from the painting anyway.

I need a break from winter weather. The entire country needs a break from this past winter. This will be a very warmly-welcomed Spring.