Spring has Sprung!

This afternoon, spring is officially here! YAY for the Equinox! YAY for the returning sunshine and daylight and *warmth*! YAY for new growth and rebirth and all of that! To mark the return of spring, I shall hang laundry on the clothesline! YES! :D Nothing says spring like clothes on the clothesline, right?!

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny Saturday. We met friends of ours from the sunshine coast in town and the kids played at PlayZone, an indoor play place, and my eldest and my friend and I took a round of mini-golf. Then we went for lunch together. Afterwards, while the car was in for a regular check-up, the kids & I tried to go on the adventure Monkido course at WildPlay, but you have to book in advance (and omg, it's expensive!)... so *maybe* on Wednesday when dad's home, depending on the weather, we'll try it. We hung out at Grammy & Grampa's for an hour and the kids chatted away happily, then home for a nice evening in. Grampa said how nice it was to have our dog over there all day; he'd been doing yardwork and as he has no dogs of his own at the moment, it was nice to have the canine company all afternoon. I'm glad Sophie was able to hang out there; I didn't think she'd have much of a day in the back of the car for hours.

Today there's nothing on the agenda. I see it's going to be sunny again... it's still quite cold, though. But I'm hoping to get outside and move some dirt, maybe plant the 10 emerald cedars I got yesterday ($3.50 each at Thrifty's!) along the front boulevard where I cleared all that broom last month. They're in 1 gall pots and quite small, still. I'll have to protect them from the marauding deer around here until they grow substantially taller, but it'll make a nice living fence/hedge along the boulevard. I haven't decided what to plant in front of them - maybe rosemary, lavender, or heather... or wildflower mix in the ditch. ANYTHING to keep the broom from coming back!!!

I made delicious 'cheezy' kale chips the other night in the dehydrator. I'd picked it fresh from the garden and wow, they're delicious kale chips. mmmm mmmm good. I'm planning on making some raw sushi today or at least some rice paper wraps. I've been making those often lately... they're pretty quick to make: shredded carrot and purple cabbage, alfalfa sprouts, some lettuce, and some avocado wrapped up altogether in a soaked rice paper. Eaten with some sweet thai chili sauce (no, not raw), it's delicious. The rice paper's not raw, either, but all it contains is "rice, water, salt" and it makes a quick wrap.

Our book club's going to read Vladimir Megre's Anastasia for our next book! Okay, I confess, it was my pick and I was *sooooo* excited to discuss it with them. I'm totally looking forward to re-reading it. If you've read it, I'd love to hear what you thought of it, too!

Enjoy your first day of spring! :D