Spring has Sprung!

When you live near a small farming community & very near a major agriculture area (the Skagit Valley), you notice the change of seasons.  The first signs of spring here are the daffodils and tulips blooming in the valley.  The Tulip Festival is held during April.  Traffic is horrible on the weekends.  We do our grocery shopping at the food co-op in Mount Vernon and during April we go first thing Friday morning, do our shopping & then high-tail it on home!  Next weekend when the street fair is held we may buy groceries in Stanwood just to avoid the huge crowds.  It's much more pleasant for us to attend the art & craft fairs that are held on the island during the summer.  There's a new poster every year and this is the 2014 poster (I hope the link works).  And yes.  The fields actually look just like this.  They are breathtaking, especially when you're looking east toward the North Cascades.  It won't be long before farmers start plowing and planting their fields too--primarily potatoes and corn with some organic farms growing vegetables.  We also have several farms that grow berries of all kinds--yummm!  I picked Marionberries last year and made jam--it smells so good when I open a jar!

The other harbingers of spring are the chicks, brooders, ducks, turkeys, geese & bunnies that go on sale at the feed store.  There are plenty of optimistic individuals willing to give a good portion of their spare time to raising and caring for these cute little guys.  We are not among those individuals.  We do, however, buy eggs from those optimistic folks when we can.

The feed store will also sell you a beautiful chicken coop for a mere $476!  It's beautiful but really?  It would stay beautiful for about 5 minutes!

The feed store also has horse equipment (are these halters?), very flashy cowgirl boots that no self-respecting farm girl would wear, and some pretty cool riding tractors for the kiddos!

There are onion sets

seed potatoes

 and last, but by no means least, there are farm-oriented tzotchkes!

I hope the snow has melted from your yard and you've mowed (mown?) your grass once or twice.  And if your seasonal hay fever has started kicking up, may you find relief.  Take good care.  Safe and happy travels.  Thanks for stopping by.