Hi, everyone!
Today is the first full day of spring! I thought winter might be over when we got back from our trip, but I was wrong! There was a nor’easter storm and we got snow! We didn’t get as much snow as the weather person predicted, but it was as much as any time before our trip!
Thomas ran out of goat cheese biscuits while we were away, so I helped Grandma make a new supply for him. Uncle Steven picked them up in time for Thomas to have them for after-school snack! Then Grandma and I used the leftover goat cheese to make the same lilikoi flavored goat cheese snack we had in Hawaii. We even used the bottle of passion fruit syrup we brought back from Hawaii!
We had some sunny days last week. I liked sitting in my sunbeam and getting warm! The sun made some of the snow melt, too! That was good for what we did last Saturday! We went to the pancake breakfast at Cumming Nature Center with Uncle Steven’s family.
I warmed up by the fire while everybody got their drinks. Then the server delivered a big tray of pancakes and sausage for all of us! We had lots of maple syrup, and James and Thomas got seconds on pancakes!
We arrived at the very beginning of breakfast service, so we had time to look around the Visitor Center displays before we started the Maple Trail outside. I made friends with a beaver! There was a sign explaining that the native people of this region, the Haudenosaunee, considered their place in the world as shared with all animals and plants. They said, “One bowl, many spoons”. There was a bowl with spoons to illustrate that!
This is the third year we’ve gone to pancake breakfast and walked the Maple Trail afterward. James and Thomas know exactly what to do at every station on the trail! They drilled holes in a log section to practice tapping maple trees for sap. Then they talked to the interpreter about how sap moves through trees. When they got to the native methods for sugaring, they helped the interpreter there tell the native legend explaining why sap needs to be boiled down to make sugar. I got to see a native bowl for sap up close!
James and Thomas always like to carry buckets around at the pioneer cabin station. James gave me a ride!
At the sugar house we watched as the sap was evaporated down to syrup. There was a lot of steam! The sun came out just as we were walking back to the visitor center. I made friends with an interpreter dressed as a maple tree!
When we got home from the pancake breakfast, I had a surprise! The snowdrops were blooming!
Sunday afternoon, we went out to the bay for the first time this year. Everything was just like we left it! On Monday morning, there was a thin coat of ice on the bay near shore. All the other ice was gone! Grandpa asked me to check how much distance there was between the zip ties we put on the bottom of the boathouse door and the water. They were all out of the water, but some of the zip ties had ice beads on them!
When we got back into town Monday, I helped Grandma pick up the branches on the lawn. We filled three trash cans! My daffodil friends are starting to come up, too! Some animal started to nibble on one of them and quit. Daffodils can take care of themselves! Some years, I’ve already seen my first crocus friend in bloom by this time, but not this year!
Love,
Lion-san