February school vacation is not normally my favorite time of year. It usually looks like this and the children are stuck at home with me and bored silly  driving me crazy looking for things to do.

Sometimes it looks like this ,which is a great way to spend a day in a  typical New England winter or even this

when snow and ice give us guilt free days to curl up on the couch and knit, watch movies and drink hot cocoa.

One night of vacation  week always  it looks like this when we head to a nearby hotel and let the girls alternately swim  in the hotel pool and shop at the adjacent mall .

I dream  that someday it may look like this

but realize that two more college tuitions may make that always stay just a dream. Bummer.

One thing it NEVER looks like is this

but this year has been anything but normal weather-wise. Usually in February here, even IF the snow has melted ( and that is a big IF) the ground is certainly wet, and the garden frozen in place.Today it was 50+ degrees and mostly sunny so I figured, what the heck, might as well play along and got out my clippers and rake and started my spring clean-up. I cut back the ornamental grasses, cleared a couple aof perennial beds, cut down my biggest clematis ( a terniflora or sweet autumn that grows intertwined with a rambling rose), and added lots and lots of branches to the burn pile .

I also did a yard scan and found a nice little nesting area of voles . they had set up house right next to a pile of brush that I left to move “later” after the October  snowstorm. They were happily chewing easily acessible bark from the downed limbs, but unfortunately also were gnawing on the new baby gingko tree I forgot to wrapDarn.I reloaded a tomcat bait station and placed it near the holes I found , and they should be gone soon.

The good thing about getting outside now is that I got to see things like this.. the first snowdrop of the year here coming into bloom

and this  boxwood seedling in an unexpected place

and this salvia I left in a container with fingers crossed that seems to have  overwintered just fine

Not a bad way to spend a February day, even if I do miss winter .