The Ultimate Sign of SPRING!!

This is my favorite (I think I have lots of favorites, but today this is it). I stopped on my way home from work today to take these pics.Cherry blossoms come first followed by peaches & apricots, then pears & apples! I love fruit. I love that I live in an area that is surrounded by much agriculture. I live near lots of fruit orchards (fewer than when I first moved here, sadly) and there are also lots of wheat fields nearby. I work 30 minutes away in an area full of row crops, vineyards, orchards, hay fields, etc. It's so fabulous! I saw Neighbor Jane Payne's post about asparagus and I love that too! Soon, my favorite produce stand will be opening up with their first product - ASPARAGUS!! I never knew I liked asparagus until I moved here. We have a great recipe for pickling that is so yummy. We use it on asparagus, even though it's for making pickles. It's from the Food Network - Good Eats w/ Alton Brown (my hubby's kitchen hero!). I love fresh fruit & veggies though - all of it. I am not much on canned goods - all fresh. I used to work in an apple shed (HR dept of 1, me!) and after that I couldn't even buy an apple in the store! Fresh from the tree is the only way to go! We have found our favorite places for buying each product along our journeys - we know who has the best (in our opinion) bing cherries, rainier cherries, apples, peaches, etc. for the best price.I I love the farmer's market too. We love buying fresh ingredients for salsa making! It's so outstanding I can hardly wait for fresh fruit & veggie season!! It was so wonderful on my drive to/from work to see the first orchards blooming! It's really gorgeous when there's lots in bloom. I have been trying to keep an eye out for a great local to snap shots of an entire orchard in bloom.

Another great sight and sign that spring is here is brown turning to green!! For example:

The nearby golf course is filled with huge weeping willow trees and all of sudden they are green and not just the brown branches waving in the wind. I was quite amazed that I did not see one golfer when I stopped to take the pics. I thought for sure I would see at least one person taking advantage of the beautiful day. I think it was a little breezy, so that could have deterred them.

Oh the joy of spring. Hopefully, my younger son will stop getting sick. He's come down with a cough again today/tonight. I can tell it's going to be a rough night for both of us and he'll end up in my bed without me noticing or remembering. It's not all bad since we run a humidifier in our room at night and he could probably benefit from it. ARGH! Sleeping with a 2-year old is not restful; he's wiggly and kicks quite a bit. Ok, that's a whole other subject that's not as cheery as talking about spring, so not going to go there! :)