Surviving the Cold

For the past couple of days, it has been unusually cold again. Even on the day when  Bow was giddily hanging off the rafters, later that afternoon it rained and rained, and the next time Bow went outside that day, it was suddenly much, much colder.

Bow looked out at the pen. It was much less inviting than it had been a few hours earlier. But he went out anyway, because he likes to be outdoors.

Leo is always willing to play some more, but I think you can tell by looking at the picture closely that Bow was feeling cold. This, however, did not keep him from expressing his thoughts.

Meanwhile, I was looking at the plants. First of all, there were tiny shoots in Bow's planter, despite the fact that he had toppled it over twice since planting.

Tiny shoots in Bow's planter on the afternoon of April 13

The cherry tree was now in full bloom.

                                     
Bees buzzed by the tree, even as the weather threatened to be stormy.

The pear tree, which up until recentlyhad been completely bare, now was covered with leaves.

And the tulip tree was sprouting leaflets right next to the old, dead flowers from last year.

The next day, April 14, things got even colder and I eventually had to start heating the inner pen again. I was concerned that it might freeze, so I brought Bow's planter with its tiny shoots inside.

The tiny shoots on April 14

The tiny shoots were a little bigger, almost imperceptibly so. I was worried about the fruit trees, because I could not bring them in. In other parts of the state, it even snowed last night. Luckily, not here so far.

This morning, Bow asked to go out repeatedly all morning, but I told him it was too cold. Finally, around eleven I gave in and agreed.

I took the planter with its tiny shoots and put it out to bask in the sun. Bow enjoyed sunning himself, too. But it was still very cold out. Soon Bow asked to come back inside. The tiny shoots in the planter, however, said nothing. So they stayed put.