Out of hibernation - at last!

Happy Valentine's Day! The sun is finally out, and the cold front is (we hope) gone for the year! In fact, we'll have weather up into the 70's today!

We celebrated Valentine's day early, with a night out at the Rascal Flatts concert, on one of the coldest iciest nights of the winter. When we arrived the parking lot was circled with 11 large trucks, all displaying the Rascal Flatts group photo.

It's amazing the amount of equipment and people it takes to put on productions like that. There were also several other large trucks and motorhomes. Like a small city on the move!

It was great fun, as they put on a good show, and had two other great acts with them - Luke Bryan and Chris Young - as warm up acts. The Cedar Park      is a nice place for a concert, not too big, and the lighting effects the bands used were very effective for this size facility. 


 They're good at predicting the weather here, so we left home early enough to get to the venue before the snow started, but coming home was another story. Drivers here are unfamiliar with icy roads and there were cars all over the place. Off ramps were closed, as well as sections of the freeway in some places. With the icy roads and all the wrecks it only took us twice as long as usual to get home, so we didn't get home until around 2 AM - that's late for us old folks!

The next morning we woke up to a real winter wonderland. Not much to get excited about if you live where it snows regularly, but folks in these parts don't quite know what to make of it. Schools and many businesses were closed and towing companies and body shops undoubtedly did a booming business.
Within a day all was melted off and things went back to normal.

All the critters are starting to move around as it warms up. While closing the blinds at dusk yesterday Steve noticed a small fox checking out the ground under one of the bird feeders. He'd clearly been here before, as we watched him confidently make the rounds of the compost heap and other feeders, then trot off into the deep woods.
This morning the hackberry tree out in front was filled with a flock of small birds with yellow tummies (we haven't identified them yet), readily gobbling up all the little "berries" from the branches. All the cardinals are out staking out their territory, and I do believe it's Spring! The weather man says he expects one more freeze, so we'll see.