Sunbreak: When the sun appears in a cloudy sky for a little while, then gets covered again.Commonly used in Seattle, WA. (UrbanDictionary.com).

We had a perfect example of a sunbreak at the end of the day today. After a day of clouds, hail, and rain, I suddenly noticed the sun was shining. While I was admiring the light making the water drops in the trees look like jewels, I noticed the willow tree a block over is starting to leaf out. It's official! Spring is near.

I tried to get pictures of the jewel-like water drops, but it was impossible. They look best with the sun behind them, and of course it's impossible (at least for me) to photograph into the sun. I tried shading the camera, but it didn't work.

I did discover a robin (Turdus migratorius) in the crabapple tree while I was outside. Now that I've looked up the scientific name, I'll have to try not to think "migrating turd" every time I see one. Since I mention the birds liking the crabapples in my tree in every other post, I won't point out what the robin is doing in the photo.



Since I've been seeing green on the ground ever since December's snow melted, I haven't really been counting it as a sign of spring. However, I think the picture below shows that plants are ready to rip.

This is a corner of what I call my "kitchen garden" because It's a few steps away from the patio door and because it has a few herbs in it. You can see chives and lavender at the top, chamomile (I think and hope) in the middle, and a ground cover and bulbs at the bottom. I'm mainly showing the picture to make the statement that I have lots of cleanup work to do here!





If you can believe the current weather forecast (I'm laughing hysterically along with you), it's supposed to be sunny tomorrow. If it's actually more than a sunbreak, I hope to take care of some of this.