Tuesday, March 04, 2008

One Step Forward...

...two steps back.

That's how it feels this time of year. The forecast for the next few days includes freezing temperatures in the mornings. Now that there are flowers on the trees and daffodils blooming, the gelées matinales are less welcome than they were a month ago.

Morning frost on dead stalks of wild carrot (Queen Anne's lace) in the vineyard.

I should go outside today and renew some mulching around certain plants so the frost won't kill off the new growth. I also need to get the ax out and split some more kindling for the wood stove. The fires sure are nice in the evening. For the cold mornings, we use the furnace.

We haven't had nightly fires for a week or so, but yesterday afternoon the wind kicked up and it felt cold, so I put one in. I expect we'll be burning again for the next few nights. It's a little work, hauling kindling and logs into the house, and cleaning out the stove and disposing of the ashes each day. But a little work is good and it's much more economical than burning fuel oil.

I'm very glad that I got all the logs cut last fall. It's been great not to have to haul out the chainsaw in the cold and damp of winter.

9 comments:

  1. That is a great picture. Hopefully there's not too much more cold left in the season for you.

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  2. It's raining here in Toulouse, but I saw a flake or two of snow. Brrrr! May winter be chased away by spring!

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  3. I loved to see your old post as a bûcheron. We used a woodstove when we lived in Northern Ontario. My husband and friends went in the forest to get the trees, hauled them back and cut them in logs as you did. My job was to pile them neatly in the shed. Good memories! It does make you feel good when all is done. Your pictures are great.

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  4. You might feel it's one step forward, two back, but today the date is also a command: March forth! May you be inspired by that. Spring is coming, and so are the longer days for you to do more work. Now, isn't that inspiring? (she asks ironically).

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  5. @Lost in France, it is so not snowing in Toulouse. It was hail, or hell depending on how you look at it. I checked the meteo and many forecasts say it will snow a little bit here, but I will continue to call it hail. It does not snow here, or so goes my mantra. I thought I left that behind.

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  6. Oops, it is cold though. I am going to march 4th and proclaim the "hail" over.

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  7. @francetales.com: Well, I did see some flakes and I haven't been hallucinating lately!

    I am sorry for WCS, though.

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  8. muzbot, thanks! We hope so, too.

    lost, we had snow on Tuesday afternoon.

    claudia, now I've got to do this every year...

    anonymous, March forth! What a good idea!

    owen, if I were you, I'd get the hail out of there...

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  9. That's exactly what happened here this week. On Tuesday morning I was just getting ready to take the girls to school, we opened the door and oh! It was snowing...

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