Sunshine, Surprises and Snow

The title says it all ( pretty much). To surprise my dear mother on one of those birthdays that ends in a 0, I found myself on a plane jetting south. It was raining so hard for part of the drive to SeaTac we could hardly see the road.

But what do you know, it's 65 and blindingly bright.

The vegetable garden is in full swing.

The trees bursting into bloom.

 Torch has become very zen in her mellow old age.

 Flowering quince going full bore

There were a couple, or maybe only one, Anna's hummingbird flitting around. I really wanted it to the juveniles that had been at the farm last summer, but it was pointed out to me that hummingbirds migrate... so. Probably a different little fella. 

 Look at that shine!

 Anyway, there was a little soiree.

 We had to take great family photos.

 I went on a field trip with Marfoo to see a site where salmon fry are being raised in rice fields. See more here.

A heron caught something too big to swallow, the rodent went free.

Zooplankton! In creeks and the like fry eat macroinvertebrates, here apparently they eat zooplankton.

When I got back to the North, it was snowing...

Made my first ever snow figure. Yeeee!

The snow is long gone now, its even sunny today!