I am so enjoying our first spring in Southwest Virginia.  One thing that has been interesting to me is watching spring creep up the mountains.  Where I grew up in eastern Kentucky the mountains are shorter and closer together.  We lived halfway up windy little hollers nestled right in the hillsides.  Here at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains I can see 5 miles away to a series of peaks close to 4000 feet tall.  So here I can see a line of green advancing up the mountainsides.  The green creeps up in lines along the protected edge of the ridges and hollows.  So it looks like fingers of green pointing towards the peaks.  Here at the base of the mountains the dogwood and redbud are in glorious bloom.  I expect that two weeks after our blooms have faded I will be able to drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and enjoy the height of springtime again.

   Another nice surprise is that we have a lilac bush!  It's so interesting to find out that the boring shrubbery of last summer is actually forsythia and lilac.  It's supposed to freeze hard again tonight, maybe for the last time.  Bethany and I are going out after supper to cover her strawberries.  Mr. Berry, our dear neighbor, gave us some mint this morning.  We're going to plant it along the woods.

   The ravening hordes are starting to tear apart my refridgertor.  I better go throw some food to them.