Already a week into March...

Wow, things have been pretty busy around here, and I just haven't had the time to write a new post. It seems like something I do frequently, but again I apologize for the absence.

Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook saw the updates and photos from last weekend's trip to St. Louis for friend Emily's wedding to Morgan Zelch. Scott and I had a wonderful trip, and it was a nice winter adventure before we get started with the springtime frenzy that accompanies any ag operation. For us, it means calving, brandings and putting cows where they belong for the summer, and this spring will also include, if all goes well, two new colts, which I am very much looking forward to. Jazz, the first to foal, is just about a month out at this point.

Highlights from the St. Louis trip include a trip up the St. Louis Arch. It was the first time Scott had been to St. Louis, and the second time for me, although my first time was about 20 years ago, if not a little longer.

A delightful last-minute surprise was meeting up with college friend Kat, who now lives in New York City. We found out Thursday via Facebook that we were both headed to St. Louis that very day, so Friday we met up for lunch and conversation in Lafayette Square. Scott was a good sport and tagged along. :-)

There was a big thunderstorm Friday night, which brought in some pretty chilly weather for Saturday's wedding ceremony, which was still held outdoors at Emily's parents' house.

Emily and I before the wedding ceremony. She had a perfect vintage dress that she found discounted in the basement of the wedding boutique, and it didn't have to be altered at all. It was perfect for her.

Other than that trip, last week was just a busy one getting the paper ready to go before Scott and I left Wednesday night. Since the paper's big this time of year, with extra advertising for bull sales, that means we need more articles than usual to fill it. We're on our third week of extra pages this week, and I think it's turned out really well so far and we haven't run out of material stocked up in our files yet.

It's March 8 today, and 15 degrees outside, but I still can't help itching for spring and some flowers and gardening. It's occurred to me that I should start some flowers under a grow light in the basement so I have fresh cut flowers to decorate at our May 28 wedding reception at the ranch.

I'd like to start a variety of easy-to-grow annuals. If I can successfully get them going indoors, I could transfer them to my sunny flowerbeds in front of the house to finish growing and blooming in the weeks just before the reception. I really don't dare transplant them to outside much earlier than the second week of May. We'll just have to see how this spring shapes up. The last two have been pretty cold and wet.

But I think it would be really pretty to have a bunch of bright flowers to spread out on the eating and serving tables under our tent, combined with some pretty white lights. Hopefully the weather's nice and not cold, wet and windy. Otherwise, rather than fresh flowers, we better have hot chocolate and hand warmers for our guests.

With thoughts of spring also come thoughts of getting an herb garden going again. Try as I might, I just can't keep enough sunlight on my herbs to get them through the winter indoors. Looking forward to planting more basil, thyme, mint and rosemary. Hopefully my chives will come up again in their pot - they usually do.

In other news - I think I'm going to get a new refrigerator soon! The one that came with the house is not only energy inefficient, it's storage inefficient. And it freezes all my fresh vegetables, no matter what shelf I put them on, and it's small. Scott recently received a nice bonus from Cameron, which he used part of to buy his chainsaw, and next he'll take me appliance shopping. :-) Looking forward to getting a new one, although we'll just get a middle-of-the-road refrigerator, because we're planning on moving from this house in four or five years, and I'd hate to have to leave my dream refrigerator behind.