You can smell the brush fires burning. Here in the countryside (and even farther out from the city), people get burning permits. The permits last a few weeks, starting in the spring, from now to about May. They gather up dead brush and such from their properties and burn it in a pile (getting rid of the dead brush now helps prevent fires in the hot & dry summer months in the forests). There's also large controlled burns of fields and large country-sized lawns - you can see the people standing guard over the fire, smouldering throughout their large field/lawn. This removes the dead grass left over from last year, clearing the way for the fresh new grass to grow, and providing a little fertilizing ash too! It really seems to work well, too, their lawns always come back so fast and green! (In the city, with much smaller lawns and no burning permits allowed, you have to rake your lawn to get rid of the dead grass - not nearly as much fun). :) Always a sure sign of spring!The hills are alive with the sound of - melting. Today it was so mild most of the remaining snow was melting, and there were several little mini streams of run-off going down the huge hill at the end of our road. It was funny, Casey was cocking her head to the side, wondering what the sound was (she couldn't see most of the water because it was running underneath the remaining snow piled on the sides of the road). It's such a peaceful little sound, a gentle little trickling... :)
Yay (beginning of) Spring!! (It'll still be too cold to plant anything until the end of May, but it's nice to see the beginning of the end of Winter!). :D
The Family