My first Winters in Northwest Montana – 1994-1997 – had plenty of snow and cold, but even then the locals often commented that it was warmer and less snow than years past.

Since that time we’ve had a number of mild winters. Some started promising with a significant snow and then it warmed – blech! The first two winters in this house (’06/07 and ’07/08) were good winters with plenty of snow and cold. Since then, Winter has been a bit puny give or take a storm or cold spell.

But, this Winter!! It has been wonderful. We’ve had plenty of snow on the ground since mid-December and mostly below freezing temperatures. It might not be the kind of Winter Montana had in many years past but compared to the mild winters of the recent past, this has been a real Winter.

It is March, though and we begin our typical stop-start process towards Spring.

After the snow that did the artwork on the motorhome, we had 2 warm days.

… and the usual lake(s) developed on the driveway as the ground is frozen hard and there is nowhere for melting snow to go.

After a trip to the grocery, I backed the Jeep up the walkway to avoid carrying groceries through icy puddles. The novelty of the Jeep in a “new” spot always intrigues Auggie and he had a fun time playing while I unloaded.

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of my tomatoes, avocado and tomatillos – they looked so pretty together. A bit of an eating disappointment as that giant heirloom tomato did NOT taste as good as it looked. It was from Mexico and I hoped it was a sun-ripened tomato but now I think a hothouse and for whatever reason they are pretty tasteless with a mushy texture. Oh, well.

And then…

Yikes!

Bear and I were walking when it started.

My hat after our walk.

Bear after our walk.

My favorite little tree – actually a lilac bush.

Auggie and Bear knew what to do.

Take a nap!