There was Green this weekend

 This is one my kid's favorite weekends to head to Grandma's house. They know Conference Weekend is always when the pasture grass is green and soft and the weather is perfect for a lot of outside play.

In years past the grass has been really long but Grandpa has had a number of cows in the pasture for a number of months and they have eaten the grass all short and left a lot of "pies" all over the place. This didn't stop the kids from spending a good amount of time outside enjoying the sunshine and green.

 Grandpa's tire swing got a lot of action.

 The kids have also been working on their fort. They have a group of trees that they have made into their fort. Together, with their cousins, they have dragged branches and such to make a sort of fence around these trees so the cows don't come in and leave their calling cards inside.

 The fort has a number of great climbing trees.

 They would love to have an actual tree house but I explained that growing up we didn't have any tree houses either and that we made forts much like the one they created here. I showed them a few places we had made into forts but many of the trees have over the years fallen or cut down and used in the fire. They kids weren't impressed by any of them.  They prefered their fort and when the cousins came they quickly headed out to their little bunch of trees. I guess things don't change too much.

 The kids wanted to find some more cat tail fluff but the swampy area at the bottom of the pasture wasn't all that swampy and this wasn't the cat tail season. Who knows if there will be a cat tail season this year?

 Grandma's violets were in bloom. This little corner flowerbox by the house has had violets for a long as I can remember. Some bushes are now gone that used to be toward the back but the violets come back year after year.

 Sophie took control of the camera during one of our walks. She needed to "collect" nature (via pictures) for her STEM class. So she snapped pictures of a lot of different flowers and trees and rocks as we made our way up the street. I am not going to post them all here but she did end up taking quite a few lovely pictures along with the nature she was "collecting".

 California Poppies were so cheerful decorating many places along the road.

 These little quail sit on the mailbox of one of the neighbors along the street. Sophie loves to take a shot like this with us in the background.

 Oh look.... miner's lettuce right next to a huge amount of poison oak.

 My parents live in such a beautiful place. It is so nice to go up for a weekend and enjoy time in nature and with family.

This really is a beautiful time of year in the Sierras.  It won't be green for long. There is only a few short weeks where the grass is green before the summer sun scorches it to a yellow. We know the first weekend of April is especially a great time to hang out at Grandma's house.