Summer in the "Biggest Little City"

Two weeks ago, I got an email heralding 15 feet of new snow from the nearby ski resort. Today, it was 70 degrees here in the valley! Our first customers sat outside for lunch, which signals the beginning of a real change of pace around here. The kitchen will be hot as hell for a few months, and all of the windows and doors will stay open until we feel the sudden chill of autumn. Some days the wind will blow like mad and deposit dust all over the house! And we won't care at all, because it will be the soft, champagne air of summer! The sudden warm motivated me to trim, I mean really TRIM the droopy blue spruce in front of the house.

As soon as we closed, I got the big ladder and a saw. I didn't even take my apron off. I chose a level of branches to cut up to, and sawed away. Most of the branches were really big, heavy, large diameter. I did have to move them out of my way to get at other branches, but I didn't really look down there! I was happily sawing, and glad to see how the tree was getting lighter and more nicely shaped. I thought of how people have gotten stung on the head by the vicious sharp needles of those low-hanging branches, summer after summer. No more of that!

Gulp. When I finally really looked, the patio was covered with a mountain of branches. Um, I hadn't really worked out what the next step would be...the tree looks fantastic, by the way... Bianca called Blythe, at Labels Consignment Boutique across the street, and Blythe put us in touch with her brother, the landscaper...who declared me "kind of punk rock!" Sheesh!! This is how that "Biggest Little City" lifestyle works! He sent a truck right over. His crew picked everything up and drove off smiling, with glass bottles of Coca-Cola! That's it!

The patio is clean and breezy, ready for near-80 degrees tomorrow. The tulips are beginning to bloom. This year's new baby blue jays are already flying around so the big change in the blue spruce may confuse them at first! They'll have a bit further to fly when they dive-bomb your lunches this summer! And...it just might snow again before we can declare real spring! So it goes. XOXOXO