Now It’s April!

Hi, everyone!

I’m still waiting for the weather to stay spring, but we have had some warmer days! The last Saturday in March, we had comfortable weather to go to the Cumming Nature Center for pancake breakfast!

It was cloudy, but it didn’t rain! I said hello to my moose and beaver friends before we went downstairs to eat. Everybody had all the pancakes they wanted with as much butter and syrup as they wanted, too! Thomas remembered that it was hard to cut the sausage patties with plastic utensils, so he brought his camping knife and fork!

After breakfast, we took the Maple Trail. The sap run was already over, but all the interpreters were at their stations. I saw my friend from last year at the native American station!

Thomas and James have come to this event so many times that they know just what to expect at every station. Thomas went right to work drilling a hole in a maple log, and Uncle Steven did one, too! At the Pioneer station, there were different interpreters with a new skill! They showed James and Thomas how pioneer children made spiles from sassafras branches with a soft center. That’s what pioneers used to drain maple sap from the holes they’d drilled. I still got my bucket ride from Thomas after he finished his spile. The evaporator just had water in it, but there were samples of syrup to taste. It was yummy!

The next day, Uncle Steven’s family came over for pizza. I made sure everybody had the topping they wanted! James ate all three pieces of his cheese-only pizza, with a gummy bear for each piece. Then James and Thomas ordered custom desserts with two flavors of ice cream, a chocolate chunk and more gummy bears!

The first day of April felt like spring! I took a trip around our yard to see what was growing. The coffee grounds we put out were protecting the tulips and daylilies from being nibbled. The deer fence around the lilac was working, too! I hope some of those green buds have flower bud clusters inside! There was a crocus in the middle of the back lawn that has never been there before. The first daffodils were in full bloom, too.

Two days later, Grandma took me back to Highland Park to see what was blooming. The scilla were in full bloom and the bittersweet was still blooming. The lilac buds were green and the magnolia buds were just beginning to open on the earliest blooming trees. I was happy to see blossoms on all my helleborus friends in the Poets Garden!

The Lamberton Conservatory had just opened their Easter floral display, so we visited that, too! I liked all the colors!

The shell ginger was blooming! There were tortoises and button quail wandering around the rest of the Conservatory. I said hello to my hibiscus friends. One of my barrel cactus friends was in bloom! Grandma said my prickly pear cactus friend made me look like the Easter bunny!

There were pretty groups of crocus and a bushy helleborus right outside the Lamberton Conservatory.

Grandma and Grandpa took me out to the bay last Friday afternoon. We took a walk in the woods looking for spring plants, but the only ones we saw were trilliums. The water level in the bay is going up again. The ruts in the lawn from last year’s work have flattened out a bit, and the work crew is coming to fix the lawn. Grandpa set up a camera so we can watch the work from Fairport. We had steady rain Saturday morning, so we came back to Fairport. Grandma and I made a flourless chocolate cake, cinnamon ice cream base, and sticky cookies! Sunday afternoon, Thomas came over to bake chocolate chip cookies to take to school. He’s very good at drying all the dishes!

Yesterday, we had snow again! There was enough to coat the back deck. The temperature stayed cold enough to make the daffodils unhappy! It was a little warmer today, but it didn’t feel like spring! At least the daffodils perked up!

Love,

Lion-san