A Little Break in the Routine...

We've been hanging out on the east coast. Well actually the gulf coast. We traveled to Tampa on Saturday and will return home tomorrow. Meanwhile, John has been attending a conference in the daytime and I have been spending some dear time with my sisters, their spouses, and nieces and nephews. I get to see them all much too infrequently and the time is golden. Lisa and Frank have this amazing blended  family of five kids and two dogs and they are each interesting in their own right and each an essential part of this household. (Yes, even the dogs). My sister Karen and her husband Gary traveled down from Tennessee to be here too and we had some major fun and some girls-only time as well. We even Skyped with our grandmother on the weekend. She will be 97 next weekend. The visit has been a much-appreciated break from routine. I love you guys! Thank you for making this weekend possible.
As for the home front, the unknown raptor in my previous post is identified (tentatively) as a red-tailed hawk (sans the red tail). It might be a young one. At least that's the opinion of the Kitsap Audubon Society. I am advised to get a picture of it as it flies overhead to see the markings on it's underside. I guess we'll keep cameras close to hand and hope for the best since he doesn't announce his intentions to do a fly-over in advance. The woodpecker has continued his house-pecking. The wind chime will go up this next weekend. And the "thingamajiggy" for the door repair arrived and was installed last week. So, we are caught up. That is except for the unwelcome furry critters. It seems that there may be another mouse in the garage. The evidence was in the bird food. Another food block nibbled. So far it has resisted the lure of the peanut butter in the trap.
John picked up twenty trees and twenty wild rose bushes to plant last Friday. Add to that the 3 fruit trees, 3 hazelnut bushes, and 2 more lilac bushes due to arrive any day and he will be a busy fellow in his spare time. Fortunately, they start out quite small. Then he will build at least 2 raised beds to begin the garden.
So, it's starting to really feel like Spring and we are anxious to begin putting down more roots :-)