Easter is a Season, not only a Day...

Therefore I can still wish blog visitors "Happy Easter!" It's legitimate to do so until Pentecost, May 27th.

It has been a long blogging hiatus. Some meetings, even at weekends. Cold spell. Busy Holy Week...on Maundy Thursday my church held a Seder and Eucharist.



Then Easter. More meetings in Easter Week (last week). Then a quick overnight trip to Massachusetts for a Friday-Saturday orientation session for a national/international church convention I'll attend this summer. (Remember when I went to Anaheim for 12 days in '09? Same event. Happens every 3 years.)

Yesterday after church we opened up the cottage...earliest time ever. It's now ready for human and not only rodent habitation. (The mice had a busy winter. No harm done, but they left evidence of their presence.) It was a warm and wonderful day on the Bay.



Today was even hotter. Not just warm--hot. Usually on this date we still have snow remnants in the shady spots round the Lodge. Snow is a very very distant memory now. The daffodils and hyacinths are fading fast, some of the roses and trees are well leafed-out.

Our thermometer hit 90 degrees this afternoon. Oh--I ought to point out, at that time of day the thermometer is in the shade. The radio reported that Concord reached 92 degrees. Not fun. Especially as it's so dry...seven brush fires around the state yesterday.

My big forsythia is doing its thing--earlier than usual.



The weather will soon moderate, become more seasonally normal, in the 60's and 50's 40's or even 30's at night. Of course, this means that I will have to delay my official cottage move-in. I thought it would happen this weekend, now I'm not so sure. I have a meeting on Friday, a political dessert party Friday night, and an all-day Lay Leadership training on Saturday. After Sunday it will be cold and wet. Taking a "wait and see" attitude, but after all the hard work we put in yesterday I can't help being impatient!

All day long I've heard a phoebe chirping near the house. It's really close. Yet I haven't spotted it once. So frustrating! And I haven't seen a single chipmunk since the morning of March 14--when I saw a single chipmunk. Yes, I'm the kind of person who keeps up with her chipmunks...and misses them when they're hiding.