It appears to be a ways off, here at the cottage.  It’s still very cold and gray.  The lake still has the look of winter about it.  Snow drifts here and there, very few neighbors about their properties, shrubbery still wrapped in burlap, many restaurants and shops with no sign of life.  Seasonal living is alive and well in Northern Michigan…..

At least, I hope, it is yet some ways off.  There is *so* much work to do….

Peter and I came up on Thursday, after a recent drop of 10″ of snow….  Most of ours was melted, by the time we got here.  Just little piles here and there, under the trees.

We haven’t been here since October, when Peter was preparing to have knee surgery.  I believe this is the longest period of time that we have ever been away…

The dust bunnies appeared to have settled in nicely, but no other critters, thank goodness….

It appears we faired pretty well this winter. Yes, the canoe and kayak blew off their rack and the weather vane was ripped from it’s metal fitting….

No ice heave to the permanent dock section, this year.  That’s good.  But the deck needs sealed this year…  And the sun damage to the back of the house is now noticeable.  I do believe some painting will be happening out there as soon as it is warm enough.

The neighbor’s tree that came down on the hot tub, appeared to do no damage.  That’s a good thing.

The dock will need to be put in soon….

The deck irrigation still needs tested, to make sure it is still in good working order….

Lots of planters will need to be prepared for all the vegetable seeds, that finally arrived, after a winter of oogling over catalogs….

The little pond out front needs emptied, scrubbed and replanted this year.  Need new bark out there….  Looks like the daisies never got cut back……  Lots of limbs and pine cones to be picked up, once it dries up a bit more……

And yes, some tree doctoring needs to happen…..  It would appear someone tried to take out a couple of our front trees……  I suspect they weren’t injured but I hope the bottom side of their car had as much damage, from our landscape rocks, as their front end did from my cedar trees….  Can you believe some people???  Car parts strown everywhere.  You would think they may have wanted to keep their ripped out, but unbroken, headlight for spotlighting, or some such nonsense…..  Jeesh….

It could be worse.  Way worse.  Snow shoveling is one thing.  Snow will eventually melt if you can ignore it long enough.

Sand will not.

This may be public property, but the sand is up to the bottom of the trail bench.  Some one has to remove it and redeposit it on the beach.

This is not public property.

These poor people no longer have a yard or sidewalk or driveway or garage access….  I’m not sure when or what happened, but I bet they don’t like sand as much as they once did…..  It’s bad enough cleaning up tracked in sand, during the summer months.  But year round???  I wonder if the city would buy it for a fair price?????

On a brighter note, even though it was really chilly, I was able to get out and do 5.5 morning miles.  Love it when the traffic is so light, the fudgies have yet to arrive and the locals drive 65 in a 45……  Okay, you can’t have everything…..  But at least the traffic is light

The rhubarb is coming up nicely, even if the unruliness of the Horsetail (Equisetaceae)
has already started taking over across the street…

And even the unplanned Easter lilies are trying to do their thing!

Hopefully tomorrow will be dry and warm enough to get some major yard work started.  And maybe take a little morel hunting hike….

At least, for now, the dust bunnies have been kicked to the curb.  And their is hope on the horizon!

So, has spring sprung where you live???

Bring it on baby.  I can hardly wait!!!  Work and all!