Sunny Sunday

Top of Hill

Pine Forest

Moss on stone

Winter green(Spring Red)

The sun came out today to do serious battle with the rest of the snow and ice. I can now walk to the top of my hill without slipping and sliding it is wonderful. It amazes me how quickly the air warms up in the morning when it is sunny and calm. 

I walked to the top of the hill to take a shot over the trees as you see in the first picture there is something starting to happen a little haze of growth coming over them in a few spots. It will be a while to see any sort of leaves, but for now the winter is over.

Light filters down in the pine forest in a special way in the second picture and gives you almost a magical feeling when you walk through it. The only colors right now are the green of the pines,the red hue of buds and wintergreen, and the green of the moss on the ground, which is very responsive to any first light of Spring and almost glows when it first starts to grow.

The Wintergreen or Bayberry in the last picture has a very different reaction to the new warmth. All winter it stays green and then in the Spring turns this bright red. The berries are a wonderful breath freshener and I never forget to pop one in when I walk by one of these plants. 

If you look you can still find snow on the North sides of the mountain and ice clinging to the rocks slowly and stubbornly refusing to leave. But I decided I had enough ice and snow pictures for the year and wanted you to feel Leetonia's move to Spring. I even saw a few yellow flowers along the road when I drove to Leetonia yesterday. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me or they would have made the blog. Spring is one of my favorite times of year. The grass is low, the bugs haven't arrived and you can watch the forest change daily coming into a vibrant living expression of all the energy the sun sends to it. Today is a good day to enjoy a walk in Leetonia or anywhere in nature. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.

The Three Children

Three Children

 When I was a child up here my grandmother told me I had a tree that was all mine. She said it started to grow about the same time I was born. She pointed to a small pine across the road in a group of three pines. She said, "It is the darnest thing not only did that one start when you were born, but the one next to it came up when your brother, Rob, was born and the last one came up when your brother, Ted, was born. I marveled at this as a child, but as an adult now living right across from the trees, I can't help think about her telling me this every time I see them. I am not sure why my last two siblings didn't get a tree. I guess getting five trees to grow in a row was asking a bit too much. It is a fun thing having your own tree and watching it grow. Somehow it doesn't seem to complain as much as I do about getting older.
A quick change in subject brings me to a few more fun things I didn't get in my last list of fun things. Some camps don't have water so when people get dirty they like to find ways to get clean comfortably.

Shower faucet

 One friend I have rigged up this way of having a nice warm shower. He got a big stainless steel cooking pot and drilled a hole in the bottom of it. Then he attached a water line to an on-demand 12 volt pump so he could work it off a battery system in his camp(he don't have regular electric either).

Heating the water

Switch for water

This runs to a faucet over a tub in his bathroom. The water is heated by a propane burner under the pot and when he wants a shower he switches on the switch and the pump pumps warm water through his system. He follows the wet, turn off, lather turn on, rinse turn off principles of a fast low usage shower. He says the water stays warm long after he turns the cooker off(which is outside). Not sure how consistent the temperature is between scald and freeze but he seems happy with it. Obviously this system won't work when the temperatures are below freezing outdoors since the unit he heats water with sits outside. I thought it was interesting and you all would enjoy seeing someone else's alternative shower method. Of course you can always jump in the stream if you can take the cold. Mountain girl, Paula, logging out.