It's here! Spring, that is.

The first weekend in April bought a definite shift in temperature, from freezing rain to crisp, fresh, spring air. It was as though overnight the Earth tilted relative to the sun, bringing longer days and that wannabe outside ambiance. A celebratory hike was in order—hooray! Boyfriend and I drove a short-ish way West on 1-66 to Bull Run Mountains Conservancy for a by no means challenging, good ‘first of the season’ venture, if you will, in Northern Virginia’s rolling hills. The essence of Northern Virginia, being one of the prettiest places I have ever lived, was captured in full at each vantage point as we ascended up to Elvis Rock Overlook. This picture does not capture the views. But it captures happiness—we in the Mid-Atlantic are free from the seemingly everlasting winter gloom!

I made my point. But now I have another: I try so very hard to offset the time I spend in the car during the week, by not spending time in the car on the weekends. I foresee this becoming an issue as the weather continually warms. For now though, time in the woods is incomparably worth travel time to the woods. On the other side of that coin, I strive take full advantage of my city time before I retreat to a Tumbleweed Tiny House in the mountains of Montana. All that to say, this delightful weekend was split with a lengthy walk around Washington, DC to see the Cherry Blossoms on Saturday, prior to Sunday’s escapade. The blossoms were not quite in full bloom, but having seen them in all their glory in 2012, I was thankful for nice weather and time outside.

This is pretty much the story of life going forward… because the spring equation allows little room for all things indoors.