Thrift Store Goodies

While shopping for an April Fool's chicken at my local thrift store, I spied this game from the 70s that I wasn't familiar with: Constructo-straws. The package looked too complete and a very good deal at $3.99, so I bought it.

It didn't take me long to find someone who did know and love this game; my friend, Amy L. said she and her brother played it a lot when they were kids. (although is it really a game? I guess not. Just a toy.)

I thought maybe I had the very first daffodil blooming in my yard in Lincoln, but I saw a bunch on campus already in bloom, so mine isn't that special. It still looks really nice, though.


The tulips are a large mass of green now, and the crocus still look very nice. I didn't realize they closed up at night, so I made sure to get a good photo while there was plenty of daylight.



Corrie got a hankering to build a real compost bin today so he could have a place to put the stuff that had decomposed nicely in the bottom of his old truck bed, but he got as far as sifting the twigs out and then informed me that the compost bin would be part of his 2015 yard plan. (I don't think he really means that-I think/hope he means he wants to do some other re-arranging in the yard before he settles on a permanent compost location.)

Is it ok to just rake up the snow with the leaves?

It's a balmy 45 degrees already today, which if you factor in the windchill last Wednesday, that's a temperature difference of 65 degrees! It feels so good, I'm ready to tear into the yard and do the chores that should've been done last October, or maybe November at the latest. The trouble in Nebraska is the trees just don't lose their leaves until December, so unless we get some nice Christmas weather, the leaves just don't get raked until springtime. I don't think this is all bad, since I hope they serve as insulation to the plants below, but they can't stay there forever. I might try to hold off until the rest of the snow melts, I guess.

I've been periodically surveying the yard (both for plants and graffiti, we had some issues last month) and found signs of the first tulips emerging. They come up every year about this time, and I know that they'll be ok even if there's some chilly March weather.


The rest of the yard looks kind of sad, but it won't be long before there will be plenty of plants to care for and weeds to pull.

The butterfly garden today:



The butterfly garden, just last fall:

I'm hoping sometime this weekend I track down the crocus I've planted! Surely they're ready to come up.