It must be Spring somewhere...

This has been a very strange weekend...we started off with ice and snow showers late Thursday and into Friday. By the time the storm was over, we had at least 8" of very wet snow. While all of our friends, family, and fellow bloggers were celebrating Spring, we were beginning to sing Christmas songs again!!!

We couldn't stand staying in on Friday night, so during the middle of our little snow storm, Brad and I ventured out for the normal Friday night fish fry at Pine Ridge. There weren't too many others with the same thought...seems as if most everyone was hunkered down for the evening to see what Mother Nature was going to do for her winter finale (we hope!). We didn't see a single car on the road to Pine Ridge and less than half a dozen vehicles were in their lot. Service was fast and as usual we had a great meal. The unusual part of the evening came on the way home...the snow was still coming down at a pretty good clip...the brights were on in the Pathfinder so we could keep an eye out for deer...about a mile north of Long Lake Road on B, in the near distance I could see what appeared to possibly be a rabbit hopping toward us in the right tire track left by a previous vehicle...as we got closer, Brad swerved to miss the "rabbit" which ended up being an OTTER...are you kidding me? An otter in the middle of County Road B in the middle of a snowstorm...in the middle of April. We were both in shock...and amazed at the same time!

I did get a chance this weekend to get out and take some photos. Most of Saturday was pretty gray but the clouds rolled out late afternoon and gave us some great blue skies. Sunday finally showed some signs of hope...nice blue skies, lots of sun...and 40+ degrees...enough warmth to melt some of that not so welcome spring snow. Here are a few shots from the weekend...

These are from our property...


While I was out shooting, Brad was moving VERY HEAVY snow around with "Big Blue"...

This chair is at a neighbor's house...I love the random paint on it against all of the white...

Here's a boatlift wishing for Spring too...

This is a hooded merganser...just passing through...

And some wood ducks...there are so many beautiful males in this photo...just wish I had been closer!!!

A stunning sunset...with a couple geese in what little open water there was..

A view of the Namekagon River...

Another sure sign of spring...the beautiful pussy willows...

We see grouse fairly frequently...but normally I don't get a chance to get a photo...