Well, Mom and Dad came to visit for a long birthday weekend, and we had a great time, although now that they've departed, I remembered that I forgot to find some locally made fudge for Dad. We did a little exploring, played a little pinochle, worked in the yard, and had a really nice, relaxed, and fun visit. For some reason I let them talk me into staying in the master bedroom while they slept in the guest room, on a trundle and day bed. Mom says she liked the ceiling glitter flecks at night. We neglected to bring either of our cameras most places, but on one day of running shot some photos on the go. This is one from inside the vehicle of the front of the house. My parents provided the front porch swing as a birthday/housewarming gift and it adds a perfect, if almost too cute touch to the house. The crabapple tree in front of the master bedroom window is fully aflame with flowers now, and the maple on the neutral ground is glowing red - my favorite.
 

A through-the-roof shot, while driving, of South Main Street, Findlay. 

Drive-by shots of downtown Findlay, Ohio. 

Drive-by shot #2, Findlay. 

Drive-by shot #3, downtown Findlay. 

One of the Findlay Resevoirs, also a park area. It's bigger than I remember! 

Some llamas en route to the Resevoirs. 

On one of our outings we swung by the little red schoolhouse on 236 and 568 - interestingly, you have to almost trample the tulips to get a glimpse inside. More interestingly, the hand pump in the front of the schoolhouse still works! Though with all the brownwater reports around Findlay, who knows the safety of the source! 

This is a shot of Katman looking out of the front window at the new, strange, porch-swing. 

This, finally, is the Backyard Bunny. Unfortunately, we noticed a very young and very dead offspring just next to the back deck.  

So, I had a long weekend. Since it's difficult to take a quick trip from here - requiring a 2 hour drive to an airport, then a few hours' flight, then a 5+ hour drive to my favorite locations out West, I decided to take a road trip. Except there were storms across the northeastern US. So I drove north to Ontario, Canada, and through that province eastward to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. I made a quick stop at the souvenir shop to pick up some sweets for the girls who were cat-sitting for me. I didn't think such a high cheese factor existed outside of Las Vegas. However, it does, and is very much alive in Niagara Falls. I didn't take any photos of the main tourist strip, because I didn't stop there - but it was filled with hard rock cafe, wax-museum, souvenir kitch gone mad. 

Niagara Falls via drive-by shooting. I opted not to pay $15 to park..... 

The falls have a great pedestrian promenade..... 

View of Niagara Falls from the Rainbow Bridge to the U.S. 

Leaving Canada via the Rainbow Bridge. 

I stopped for the night at a basic Best Western off the main hotel strip. Even though it was a basic hotel, my room had a gas fireplace..... 

....and heart-shaped, mirror-walled jacuzzi tub. 

This is holiday valley, western New York. It's a really neat little town and a family winter ski area. I wonder if they manufacture their own snow? Since it's been in the 60s and 70s up here recently, I find it hard to believe that snow from the last real snowfall (December?) would be left on the slopes..... 

Pennsylvania country barnside advertising...... 

This was the most fun event of my rapid-road-trip weekend: I found the optimal window configuaration that would result in my hair being sucked out of the sunroof! I'm posting this even at the risk of it being an otherwise really bad self-portrait. 

Spring is bringing forth a few more surprises in the yard, as it does. One of them is patches of mushrooms in the back yard. I'll have to look these up to see if they're edible. 

In a back corner of the yard, I noticed a familiar herb. It's spearmint! 

This is the patch of ground behind the neighbor's garage that backs up against the east side of my back yard. It's about 4 feet by 20 feet. I hoed it all up a few weeks ago, and noticed some baby potato and carrot plants. Maybe this was a vegetable patch in the past, but with all the rabbit activity in the yard, I'm not sure how much it really yeilded. So, when I hoed it up, I sprinkled three bagfulls of wildflower seeds in and watered them down. Right now I'm calling this my experimental patch, and will wait to see what comes up. There are a few sprouts here and there, but today has been super windy, so there is a lot of debris over the area. Regarding the bags of wildflower seeds - each was rated for NW Ohio, so they should be suited to grow here. And each bag contained approximately 10,000 seeds. We'll wait to see what the experimental patch of 30,000 wildflower seeds yields, if anything. I have low expectations. 

This is the Weeping Cherry tree. It was just buds yesterday - they exploded open today. 

...and a detail shot of the Weeping Cherry tree.