Early Spring?

Have you ever seen a snake in the snow?  I hadn't until a month ago.  Dad and Zuri were playing in our backyard in the snow and I went out to talk to them.  I spied this little guy slithering across the snow. 



Amazingly enough, neither of them had seen the snake before I pointed him out. 

Indication of an early spring?  The weather since certainly makes it seem so.  There are a couple snakes that hang out in our flower bed and Zuri will look for them when she gets home from school.  She has found one almost every day in the last month.

We have also noticed some buds starting to show on our apple tree, so although it is still a bit early, J attacked the apple tree this weekend.  He literally cut off 98% of the branches.  We will be lucky if we get six apples.  As he states, "it had to be done."  The poor tree had been so neglected over the years.  So this year we won't get many apples, but next year we should get a good crop.  However, I am really really sad about the pretty apple blossoms that we won't get this year.