Spring break (still waiting!)

I can't wait for spring break, it seems to be taking forever to get here. I can't help but laugh at myself a little when I'm tempted to complain about how late it is this year. At this time two years ago I was working in a retail job I hated with no time off except the two or three weeks' paid vacation I got which had to last the whole year. And I had to work there over 5 years to qualify for that much time off! Now I have a week and a half at Easter, the whole summer, almost a week at Thanksgiving, and two weeks over the winter holidays off. I'm trying to always remember what a luxury that is.

It does seem to be taking a long time for our spring break to get here, though. Our local school district ties it to the Easter holiday, and Easter falls late this year. We're out of school from Good Friday, April 19th, until Monday April 29. Once we get back to school there's only 4 or 5 weeks left until we dismiss for the summer.

Gregg is taking an extra day or two off with me over the holiday. He gets very little time off so I kind of insisted he take some time to spend with me and to relax! After he goes back to work I'm considering going to visit my father in law and sister in law for a day or two. I've been meaning to get up to Raleigh for a visit since my mother in law passed away, but we've been so busy with buying a house and then the holidays that it's been on the back burner. I'd like to see Lou, and I'm also thinking about asking for some divisions and cuttings of plants that Edythe loved from their yard.

Spring has already fully sprung here in South Carolina. Our new little neighborhood, being adjacent to a small creek and nature trail, has lots of old dogwoods in full bloom, wisteria running riot, and even some trees draped in Spanish moss. Not to mention a thousand shades of green. We've never seen so many birds and such a variety at our feeders. There are scores of Northern Cardinals, House Finches, Song Sparrows, Mourning Doves, Tufted Titmice, Carolina Chickadees, Carolina wrens, and lesser numbers of Red Bellied woodpeckers, Red Breasted nuthatches, White Breasted nuthatches, Common grackles, and the occasional Blue jay. Best of all, we have our very own pair of Barred owls that live here! We hear their calls almost every afternoon when they first wake up ( a soft "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all") and then occasionally throughout the night. They're often hanging out close to our house (I fear they may have some interest in our well populated feeders, but so far we've never seen an attack). One of them landed in the tree over our driveway the other evening at dusk, and we got a good look at him/her. It was pretty amazing! Sometimes when the weather is mild and I'm sleeping with the window open, I wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of the pair calling softly to each other in the dark. It's a lovely, reassuring sound.

How is the season coming along where you live?