This picture gives me the chills.

We live in the foothills at elevation 600 feet and don't often get snow on Mt. Diablo, which is 3,400 feet tall. In the 30+ years I've lived in the Bay Area I've only seen snow down here perhaps five times. But this was the storm that hit while we were last up at Tahoe and it was a biggie. I am in awe.

As beautifully bleak as this picture is, there are many signs of spring around. The tulips are beginning to bloom in our yard. I love tulips -- yellow ones and light pink especially. The ones coming up now are different shades of purple and the contrast with the still-green hills is gorgeous.

We've also got that citrus thing going on. The orange trees and lemon trees are going wild and this makes me elated. One night a week ago Dave and I covered our Meyer lemon tree in sheets to protect it from the freeze. He thought I was nuts. Our neighbors were on vacation for three weeks and we harvested from their yard. Their yard is lush and I never noticed how many citrus they had until the leaves were off most of the other plants. Let's just say we've had a lot of Vitamin C these last few weeks. We also discovered a great lemonade recipe.

As an aside, Tori accidentally broke off a branch on one of the neighbor's lemon trees. Of course it's the tree center stage in the front yard. I know I'm a little bit crazy because I feel for the poor lemon tree. I love lemon trees (see lemon-tree-pajama-exercise in previous paragraph). Not as much as the kids and Dave but really, I've given that injured tree a lot of thought. I may need therapy.