There might be nothing nicer than a spring morning.  With the first rays of sunlight hitting the water, and birds singing in the distance, it is a great time to be walking around outside.

I will admit to wishing for another fifteen degrees of warmth.  This morning in Bluewater Cove, we were at a comfortable 55F. However, if I had my choice of overnight temperatures, I would likely pick 70F. 

I am not going to complain about the slightly cool edge to the day's first light temperature.  It is only April 13, and we will have plenty of warmth soon enough here on the Southern Outer Banks.  Right now is a favorite time of year for me since we can play what I like to call the "Heat Pump Game."

The goal of the game is to see how long you can go without your heat pumps running.  This time of year, it is possible to go weeks without them turning on if you don't mind opening and closing windows.  The pine pollen seems to be wrapped up so it is possible to open windows without everything turning yellow.

I don't think our heat pumps have run at all for the last two weeks, and I am guessing that we might get by for at least another week.

The middle of April is a busy time of year.  Earlier in the week I followed the rule of spraying for weeds in my centipede grass yard "when the dogwoods are in full bloom."  I was lucky to find a time with little wind to do my spraying.  I also got a full day after the spray before we had the showers come through.  I didn't spray until I had pulled my sixth grocery bag full of wild onion bulbs out of the yard.  I am looking forward to seeing if all my hard work makes a difference.  It's actually not time yet to fertilize centipede, but there is plenty of other outside work to do.

I have put some cages on my largest tomato plants, and I am eagerly awaiting the opening of the first blooms on my tomatoes.  It appears they are going to be five or six days later than last year which was April 9.

We still have a shot at getting our first ripe tomatoes early the first week in June.  It just depends on how warm the days and nights are during the next couple of months.

I have already had lettuce from my tiny garden on a sandwich, but we are getting close to having enough for a salad.  There will also be some radishes to go with the greens.

Then there are the strawberries.  I don't grow them, but I eagerly await the local crop.  We drove by the closest strawberry u-pick yesterday.  I could see some partially ripe berries on the plants.  I am guessing some of the farms a little farther inland might actually have berries this week.

It is a great time of year, maybe I will get in another beach hike today.  The exercise helps the other life-style changes we have made to keep us healthy.