Spring is almost here and I, for one, am looking forward to it. I recently went to  Bird-in -Hand Farmers Market www.birdinhandfarmersmarket.com. It  is open Friday and Saturday this time of year, but Thursday- Saturday when Spring gets here.   With Spring comes home grown asparagus, dandilion greens (Mother always thought I needed a spring tonic and made this for me) that do nicely in salad. I prefer the Asparagus that makes a great breakfast dish.

Small town America is a special lifestyle, not always the simple life but never the less small scale. When I go to the local grocery store, the cashier could be a local minister’s wife, a woman that went to school with my daughter or the lady across the road. You meet neighbors, relatives, and friends in the aisles. That has always been my way of life, so city life is very foreign to me.

When I was a little girl my parents raised chickens. Mother gathered the eggs twice a day and would sort them by size. Friday we went to the local store (at that time there were only 2) and she would give the eggs to the storekeeper. He would count them and give her credit for the eggs.  This is what we call bartering, back then it was just a trade for groceries. The building still stands but the store is long gone. I miss that simplicity in life but embrace the way I live now as well. Here in Lancaster County there are some very small stores that have a semblance of that era. When guests ask I send them to those “outposts”.

It is a great weekend, outside the snow is DEEP, inside it is warm and cozy, unless you are living where you have no electric. I never realized how much we rely on others for getting goods to us. With the airports shut down for at least a day shipping of goods is not happening; the flowers for my packages never arrived (I’m holding hope for today). Roses are not from these parts in February I wanted to make raspberry chocolate pancakes for breakfast and the store hadn’t gotten the shipment of raspberries . Plan B was blueberry pancakes, everyone loved them. Since 49 of 50 states have snow on the ground my guests are very understanding. I keep looking for those tulips .

Wow, did we ever get hit with a big one! Keith went to the barn this morning and said it was over his boots (about 24″) everywhere he walked, if not more some places. Here in the country when we have snow and wind that means drifting that closes roads and makes travel almost impossible. We take travel advisories very seriously. It is beautiful from inside the house I have friends in southern VA that got hit even harder. Heed the advisories.