The Weekend in Pictures

I could get used to three day weekends. Really, really used to them! Here's a glimpse of some of the things I saw and did this weekend.



We had friends over for dinner Saturday night. They brought us these gorgeous eggs. Now I want to keep chickens even more. Dwight is opposed, but I'll win him over whenever we move to our dream home in the country. We had a few of them for breakfast the next morning. Delicious!



Just before breakfast, though, we made a quick trip to Lowe's to pick up annuals. We hoped to get mulch, but they were out. Oops. We got just one flat of annuals this year, and I also picked up some herbs - Greek oregano, spicy globe basil, and sweet mint. Gotta have my fresh mojitos this summer!



Dwight grabbed a large container of catmint. Have to think of the kitties, too!



Dwight mentioned that he saw some poison ivy in a flower bed at the front of our yard, so I grabbed the poison ivy killer and searched it out. Wasn't hard to find; there was a ton of it, all in this bed filled with snowdrops (still going strong, even this late in the season).



I had a run in with poison ivy last year, and I didn't want a repeat. It wasn't bad, just a bit on my right wrist and forearm - but it was enough. KILL THE IVY!



Our yard is very shady. Like, ridiculously so. It makes growing a variety of plants a challenge, to say the least. However, it does make our back yard look like a park, so I sort of fall in love with it this time each year. I mean, come on. How can I not appreciate THIS?





I have to admit, we can grow the crap out of hostas, ferns, and bleeding hearts, so that's something.



The hydrangeas and rhododendrons  seem to like it, too, despite getting seriously zapped this winter. The snow up to the keester and super frigid temps meant losing one decorative tree, and our hydrangeas and roses to the ground. Stupid winter. Pfft.



Our tree peony only had two blooms on it this year, and I almost missed them! Fortunately, I did manage to get a photo before the petals fell.



Aside from lots of yard work, I also did some artsy stuff. I worked on (and finished) a 12" x 12" panting of a parrot tulip (finished photo yet to come).




And I started a new thing - paper beads. Kind of digging them!





p.s. All photos were taken with my iPod Touch. I'm kind of in love with that thing. Don't tell Dwight.

On second thought, it's OK. I'm pretty sure he knows. He has one too, and I think he's got a crush on his, so we have mutual understanding.

Sunday Sketching

Decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather and sit outside to do some sketching. I first cut a few flowers from the yard and put them in a little metal cup to have as sketch subjects.



I started out with just my pencil, but then decided to grab my cheapo watercolors for some extra fun.

They're EVERYWHERE

I had to look up what exactly these are. Dwight calls them "worms" but their official name is "catkins" (or tassels) and they are the spent male flower from oak trees. See, we all learned something new today. I had no clue. Well, one clue. Dwight and I figured they must have something to do with pollination or creating acorns and I guess we were kind of right. They DO contain pollen, and they ARE required to make acorns. Did you know acorns are the fruit of oak trees? Me, neither. At least I never thought of them that way, but I guess it makes sense. After all, acorns are what make new oak trees. (And by the way, we had a crap ton of them in the fall.)

Oak Trees — The tree that keeps on giving. (Don't even get me started on the leaves.)

It's Spring! Sort of.

I really hate to complain about the weather, but COME ON. I think we can all agree that this "spring" has been a bit of a let down. I suppose that once it finally warms up and stays warm I'll be all that much more appreciative. That's the silver lining I keep telling myself.

In the mean time, the flowers and trees are doing their best to make a go of it. The daffodils have been threatening to open for days, but they're still not quite ready.



And what a difference a year makes, eh? Here's that same area on March 23, 2012.



Granted, last year was an anomaly in the opposite extreme - ridiculously warm very early then a destructive freeze. I'll take a slow going spring over that any day.

Just look at the comparisons from this year to last (4/14/13 vs 3/23/12).

2013


2012


2013


2012



We have quite a bit of clean up to do as well.





It'll be beautiful once again... eventually!

(like this - from 5/20/11)

Remembering

It's hard to believe May is already upon us, but Mother Nature sure knows. It rained overnight so everything is intensely green and bright despite the clouds. It's warm and damp, humid… and absolutely wonderful.

I find it kind of funny that days just like this instantly remind me of being in Hawaii. Dwight and I had the great good fortune to visit not once, but twice, about 7 years ago. It always strikes me as a bit humorous that a warm, cloudy, possibly rainy, most certainly damp day is what takes me back. You'd think it would a bright, hot, sunny day. But you see, we visited in December and January, the rainy months. So days like to today are what winter looks like in Hawaii. Which is precisely why I want to live there NOW and most definitely want to retire there someday sooner than later.

I would like to go back to Hawaii when it's not the rainy season, but for now, I really like that I can look on a day like today and smile, breathing deeply, remembering paradise as I experienced it, in turn having a bit of here, now.



I don't have a scanner at home and our trips were pre-digital camera days, so I had to take pictures of pictures.


This was a typical scene from the car. Just beautiful.


A sunny day, but very windy. This is the North Shore of Oahu – surfing paradise.


Maui. We were heading out to Molokini Crater to snorkel.

It's Here.

Well, sort of. It's getting started anyway. SPRING is showing signs of actually making an appearance this year. I have flowers. And GREEN things poking up all over. It's heavenly.

So despite the fact that today hasn't been so great (understatement of the week), I'm going to remember that these are blooming on my front walk, right now, as I type.



Happy sigh.

My Drive, Spring Edition

You might remember that about two months ago, I posted pictures of my drive home from dance class. I pulled out my camera again tonight to document the changes in scenery since then.


Lookit! It's GREEN! Spring did, in fact, manage to make it's way to northern Indiana, albeit a bit later than normal.



Where there were seemingly endless puddles of water, there is now lush, green grass. Where there were bare trees, there are leaves...

and flowers!

And this was just a lucky shot. Without looking, I swung the camera over, pointed it out the driver's side and clicked. I love lilacs. I'd love to bury my face in all of those lovely flower clusters and inhale. Ahhhh. Wonderful.

Check out my odometer. I passed the 80,000 mile mark. I put on about 800 miles in two months. Wow, that seems like a lot to me even though I know that's chump change for most people.


Something happened between that day in March and this, the 6th of May. Yeah, I know. It's called April. An on April 5th, the scenery changed drastically. The weather went all to hell and it looked like this:

GROSS!!

I can't even begin to tell you how glad I am that I don't have to see this scene again, not for months and months.

Pretty!

Remember these? No? It's probably because a month ago they looked like this:

Here are some other pretty pretties popping up all over the place...

Ahhhhh... Spring.

First Signs

I think it might actually happen. I think we might get spring after all! I had my first robin sighting Sunday morning and the spring bulbs are popping up like crazy. It's still early, so no complaints, especially about the weather this weekend—it was lovely. I didn't get to enjoy much of it, but was able to spend a few hours outdoors yesterday evening.

Because we're on the far edge of the Eastern Time Zone, our evenings are decidedly longer, thanks to Daylight Saving Time. As such, Dwight and I took advantage and worked into the evening. It was 7:45 pm and we still had daylight. It was waning considerably by then, but still light enough.

See that big pile of leaves behind and off to the right? That's what Dwight was doing all afternoon. Whew!

Dwight worked for hours in the yard yesterday afternoon and evening and you could tell. The entire front yard was cleaned up, including all up around the house in the various landscape and flower beds, as well as a decent portion of the sides and back. Needless to say, he's feeling that work today. Raking wreaks havoc on the back, let me tell you. We took a nice soak in the hot tub after putting away the rakes and tarp.


I'm very much looking forward to all of the flowers these little sprouts will bear.