The weather here has been steadily improving as the days have passed. Yesterday it was cool here, but mostly sunny. Spent most of the afternoon in Christiansburg doing some much needed last minute shopping. Went and found a 100' roll of 48" high fencing material. Seems that the horses and deer around here like to eat pretty much everything, including new blueberry plants that you set out two months ago. I am hoping that there is still enough of them left to grow this summer, but will just have to wait until warmer weather to see.

    Also did some grocery shopping and came home with some goodies for us. Rima had to spend most of her day in Roanoke for work, so she was going to get back home well after dark. I went ahead and roasted up some chicken and sweet potato fries along with some hot cornbread for dinner. It actually turned out pretty well I think.

    Not much else going on last night so we decided to go ahead and make up this years portion of limoncello. I had brought several sacks of lemons up from Florida just for this process. While I started zesting all 24 of the lemons we had, Rima was busy cutting and juicing the lemons themselves. She then used most of the juice to make lemonade, as well as freezing some of it for use later.  A bottle of vodka and some simple syrup, as well as the lemon zest is all you need. Mix it all in a large glass bottle or jar and leave in a cool dark spot for 2-3 months, and you should end up with a wonderful aperitif to sip after dinner or late at night.

    Today looks like it ought to be pretty nice. Still cool this morning, but I imagine it will be almost balmy by noon. Hope to spend most of the day out and about of course. I spent a little more than an hour last night trimming up trees here around the house. Lots of dead limbs that need to be cut off and lots of the trees need to be reshaped to grow better. It's always fun to wander around lopping off limbs here and there. It is rather cathartic in fact, and I advocate trimming trees as a way to burn off stress or simply clear your mind.

   I think today will be more of the same along with some brush clearing and such. But first... on to the comics and crossword.