Winter again!!

Boy of boy, winter will not let go of us. A snow storm again. The yard was dry and I was staring to rake all the junk that had accumulated when David and Zac cut up a tree that Itasca Mantrap cut down. Guess I'll have to wait a-g-a-i-n.
Our classic chorale concert had to be cancelled tonight. Hopefully it will be a go tomorrow afternoon. We have some really good music.

Simone and Ollie

Little visitors

With a little warmer weather and no snow we are starting to get our little visitors.
Last week Simone walks in "hi, I walked here" "Does your mom know you're here?" No answer but soon the phone rang: "Do you have a little girl there?" her mom asked. Simone was playing outside while David and Sharon were working in the office. When they went to look for her she wasn't there but they saw Bear, their dog, by our back door - hence the phone call. It started to rain so grandpa took her home.

A few days ago Ollie, our dog, "announce" that someone was at the back door. Simone. "My mommy knows I'm here". I asked again " does your mommy know you're here?" Yes, was her answer. So she sat on Grandpa's lap, had a few cookies and watched whatever western was on. (Grandpa's favorite kind of show) She asked for Dora, the Explorer but grandpa said he wanted to finish watching his show. "ok" she answered. Not too long after that the phone rang "Do you have a little girl there?" When I told Sharon that Simone said her mom knew she was here, Sharon laughed and said "she lied". So Sharon talked to Simone on the phone and told her to come home. So Simone went home.
Fortunately she doesn't have to walk on the road to get here. We have sort of a road or maybe you could call it a large path from their house, past the barn and then to our house.
A few days later Simone called "Can I come visit?" Of course we said yes. And it's only April! :)

This lovely young woman is my granddaughter, Kate.

This is my mom and dad's (seated) wedding picture - Harold and Dorothy Duncan. Mom's sister, Evelyn, and her husband, Harvey, stood up for them. Harvey was dad's best friend. Mom had two other sisters, Gertrude and Beth and a brother, Gillette. Dad had a brother, Donald and a sister, Irene. Most of mom's immediate family lived in Redwood Falls, the town I grew up in. We often got together on Saturday nights for supper and the adults played card games. Dad's family lived in other places and I don't remember them getting together very often although Dad's folks lived in Redwood and I would often go see them. My mom's dad had died when she was a young girl and her mom lived by herself until she developed rhumatiod arthritis. I remember visiting her a few times - a ticking clock reminds me of her. And we would have hot water with sugar in it and date nut rock cookies. When she could no longer live alone she lived with us for a while (although I don't remember this) and later moved into a rest home.

One of my cousins (Evelyn's daughter) and I spent quite a bit of time together. She lived a few blocks from my grandpa and grandma Duncan. We would walk or ride our bikes and stop to visit when Dianne had to buy some milk from the dairy that was behind my grandparents house. They had a beautiful yard filled with flowers, two lily ponds with goldfish in them. A rock bridge between the ponds and a rock lamp post at the the end of the path from the bridge. Grandpa also made a bird bath out of rocks. They had patio where you could sit and look at the back yard. We often roasted marshmellows in the fireplace. I remember grandpa telling me not to be so impatient roasting them - most of the time I would pull them out flaming into charcoal lumps. Now I'm not so impatient - I actually have nicely browned marshmellows to eat and not charcoal lumps

And this same tree Sunday afternoon

Snow

I took this picture from the back door Saturday evening. The spots are snow on the camera.

Spring?

And I thought it was Spring. Silly me. 20 inches of snow in less than two days.