On the Horizon

We had a few springlike days over the past week or so, enough of them to make me feel like we'll soon be saying a (possibly protracted) goodbye to winter. Hallelujah! I'm really ready - the past two weeks cabin fever has really started to settle in.

The weather hasn't even been too terrible this winter, but winter here, when you have kids, is hard. Unlike Boston, there is no built-in 'winter activity infrastructure'. No children's museums within a reasonable distance to justify going to for a two hour visit, no amped up children's section in the library, and very few affordable indoor play spaces. In a way, I'd almost prefer that it snowed more often, as at least when it is snowy out, we can do stuff like this:

and this:

and this:

But the winter here in North Carolina coastal New Jersey very rarely blesses us with much in the way of snow. More often than not, it is rainy. Or just damp and cold and muddy. So, outdoor activities are limited.

Anyway, as of tomorrow, we are halfway through February, and spring does come a lot earlier here than we were used to in MA, so not too much longer to hold on, I suppose. On my way out the door this morning, I noticed that there were a couple of rogue blossoms on the pansies I had planted last fall. I'm sure they'll be shriveled up and dead after the cold weekend we're expected to have, but I like to think that maybe, just maybe, those pansies know something that we don't.