It's been a very productive day, despite my lack of sleep.  I worked much of the morning in the backyard, raking and trimming, and much of the yard is looking a lot better.  Of course I ran out of can before I ran out of leaves, so all the downed cottonwood leaves will just have to wait until the cans get emptied on Monday.

Alex got home in the wee hours of the morning 

so we got to see a little of him this afternoon.

It was another delightful day in the park with Marcie and Latina, and naturally much more peaceful once Tom finished mowing parts of the Back 40.  I even found a place for the birdbath, and now just have to wait and see how long it takes the birds to find it.  My replacement bird book has shipped, so once it arrives maybe I will be able to ID some of the visitors. 

In the late afternoon I got out the hedge trimmer and attacked the front yard.  It had gotten quite overgrown, but now is reasonably manicured and ready for the new spring growth about to appear.   While I spent a fair amount of time and effort, my work doesn't quite look like this... <g>