Springing into March with Lily Grace

Hello all my friends in Blogland! Mommie said it's a new month and so we had to turn the pages on the calendars to the month of March!

Mommie has some other calendars besides this one, but I like this one!  I could just imagine that was me sitting up on that sled, being pulled by those beautiful big draft horses, feeling the warmth of the sunshine on my face even though there was still snow on the ground and a chill in the air.

But what is that man doing with that bucket?

Mommie said he is pouring the sap from the buckets that were attached to the maple trees into that big container to haul it back to their "sugar house" where they will boil the sap down to make maple syrup. Mommie said it takes a LOT of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup because it has to boil down to the right sugar content and consistency (that's a big word for me, but Mommie's typing this so she could spell it for me). She said that is why real pure Maple Syrup is so expensive to buy, but is sure tastes a lot better than the kind we get in the supermarket that just has maple flavoring added to corn syrup.

But Mommie says if we have to buy the man made stuff in the stores, she prefers Log Cabin syrup because it doesn't have any of that "high fructose corn syrup" in it, because that stuff isn't good for you.

The little tin of "pure Maple Syrup" on the left is something Mommie saved from when she did have some REAL maple syrup from up in Maine, when they used to live up there.

Those are a couple of syrup pitchers above.  Mommie says that if she runs out of maple syrup she can always make some from "scratch", which means she makes it from sugars and maple flavoring and water and vanilla:

Now I am hungry for some pancakes or waffles!

Thanks, Mommie!!

Speaking of "sap",  this squirrel is sitting on a sappy looking pine tree. I asked Mommie if we could tap that tree and get some sap to make syrup, but she said this is the wrong kind of tree. This is a PINE tree, and PINE sap doesn't make MAPLE sap for MAPLE syrup. But she said it does make turpentine! However, we wouldn't want to put turpentine on our waffles!

Maybe that squirrel likes the pine sap to put on his acorns and pine cones that he eats! Ha Ha!

Speaking of pine cones:

One day last week on one of our walks in the woods I saw LOTS of BIG pine cones everywhere!

They fall out of those big pine trees there in the woods.  Some of those pine cones were almost as big as me!

Oh,  and if you look really really close, you can see the beginning of a tiny little wild plum on that branch of the plum tree:

Next time we go to the woods I will check and see if it is any bigger. Mommie said it will grow to be about as big as a grape by early summer.  I can't wait to see them!!

Oh, one day when we were riding in the car I accidentally snapped the button on Mommie's camera and took a picture of her denim shirt that she had in her lap. Isn't it pretty? I love this color of blue, don't you?

Today is kind of cloudy, breezy and cold right now, and so we haven't gone for our walk yet. But we just went outside to look at Still Waters Pond and we could see two Wood Ducks way over there swimming around:

 

You can't see them in this picture above, so Mommie zoomed in on them and we could see them better:

That one below is just the female duck.  They are very shy, and when we come outside to see them they swim or fly away as soon as they see us. I wish they'd come closer so I could see them better.

Mommie said the month of March is kind of unpredictable. Some days it might be warm and sunny, and other days it might be cloudy and cold, but one thing is for sure, she said it is usually always windy!

She said March has some important dates to remember:

March 14th is the beginning of Daylight Savings time!  She said in the spring we have to "spring ahead" and set our clocks for one hour later, so like at 8:00 it is really 9:00! She said we lose an hour of sleep in the spring, and we get it back in the fall! I don't think I can wait that long to get my sleep caught up!

I hope our bluebirds don't get confused about what time it is!!

Then comes St. Patrick's Day on March 17th:

I don't quite understand all this stuff, but Mommie said it is all just for fun, and we'll talk more about it when it comes!

Mommie says I need to have something green to wear or I might get pinched! 

I'd like a pretty dress like that to wear! I wonder where I can find one? I sure don't want to get pinched!!

And then on another day in March is my big brother Scott's birthday:

There's my brother Scott now...he just created that motorcycle last night from some copper wire! He likes to create all kinds of neat stuff from wire, candy wrappers and straw wrappers.  Someday I will show you more of his creations.

He's very talented.

Then on March 20th comes the first day of Spring!

It already feels like spring here in Florida where we live, but still we are waiting for more flowers to bloom and leaves to pop out on the trees and stuff like that. I think our baby bluebirds will be born pretty soon. I hope so! I sure would like to see them!

Well, that about takes care of March! I think March is a happy month, don't you? 

I hope you enjoyed this little adventure with me today, looking ahead into March.

I hope you have a happy month of March.

Love, 

Lily Grace

xoxoxoxo