Here chicky, chicky
Just a few chicks to set the Spring mood
and some lettuce too…
This is on my back door to welcome Spring (and anyone else who enters)
Unfortunately the weather is still in the forties
still chilly
but we have sun today
which always makes me happier
I was yearning
longing even
to see a bloom
This time of year
when the ground is brown
and the hills are gray
The outdoors offers nothing
I see hope there
Some tiny shoots pushing hard toward the sky
So I bought some Spring
right into my house
a dish garden with all the Spring flowers
Already the crocuses are popping up
And it seems every hour I can see the daffodils thrust upwards
The tulips are following
I love them all
but the hyacinths are the ones I look forward to most
Their fragrance will fill the room.
It only takes a little to bring joy into my heart
a little bloom
a little color
a lot of joy
Over the weekend Don and I went to Carlisle, Pa to visit Chris and his family and celebrate my grandson Scott's 22nd birthday. It's about a five hour drive and the difference in the weather was worth the trip. I had baked a spiral cut ham to bring with me and we enjoyed ham sandwiches Friday night. On Saturday the sunshine brought hot temperatures and it reached 78 degrees. Considering that the other day in Bradford it was ten degrees in the morning you can imagine how happy I was to be warm. We traveled to Chambersburg to the mall where there was a large antique co-op. It was enjoyable looking around at all the booths. At one time Don and I were avid antique collectors. He is always on the lookout for Greentown Chocolate glass and I have collected cookie cutters. We found neither at this particular place but walked around slowly (more about that later) peeking in the booths looking at such a variety of older items. Although we didn't buy anything Scott added to his collection of vinyl albums with an Arrowsmith album while Chris bought an unusual framed picture made up of a pocket watch parts. By the time we were finished there we had worked up an appetite and ate at a Chinese/sushi buffet. The guys love all the seafood but I never learned to like it but I could find enough to eat there for sure. We spent the evening playing Five Crowns and having pizza. On Sunday we watched a movie (Wild Hogs) in Chris' theater room. It is set up like a movie theater with comfortable reclining seats, a huge screen, surround sound and even recessed lights that gradually dim just like at the movies. Then we got ready to go home. It was such a nice weekend with family.
Before we left on Friday I went to my art class on Thursday. I parked on the street, put money in the meter and stepped out onto a brick street immediately tripping on the uneven bricks and falling down. I ended up breaking my big toe which hurt me all weekend. Bad boo boo. It's better now and I will live. I don't let a little thing like a broken toe stop me.
The woodpeckers are loving the suet cakes. We have three different kinds of woodpeckers coming to our feeder this year.
Also small birds like chickadees and nuthatches love it too.
This is the wreath that greets you at my back door. So what if it was 23 degrees this morning. The sun is out and that is all that matters.
The chicks are sitting on the mantle and all is right with the world. This has been a lovely week. On Monday I had lunch at a friend’s house. We laughed and had such a great time. Yesterday Don’s brother and wife came for an afternoon visit. It’s always fun having company and catching up. 
Time to get out of the winter slump and all it takes is a cute little lamb sitting on your table. I picked up this little fellow in Virginia at a special resale shop where all the profits went to a dog shelter.
And eggs. Yes, eggs. Don’t eggs just scream Easter and Spring? These beauties are from Pottery Barn and their shiny bright colors put some pizazz on the table.
I love the majolica rabbit dish too.
This Spring banner I made myself from directions found on the internet.
The table is set for Spring now.
On the back of the chairs I tied little nests.
Now I can say Spring has finally arrived at Chatham Lane despite the snow on the ground outside.
According to me the world is divided into two groups...those who jigsaw and those who don't. Jigsaw puzzles seem to be a northern thing while we are dealing with cabin fever. It passes the time and taxes our spatial skills. In any given household you can find a card table set up in the living room containing a puzzle over which is bent a serious jigsaw puzzle expert. Long hours are spent searching among one thousand pieces to find just the right shape, size and color to fit into a certain spot. You can see a small smile of satisfaction when that elusive piece is finally snapped into position. There is no fulfillment until every piece is put in place and the entire puzzle is revealed in total. Then there are people like me who have no desire to pick up even one piece. To me who can't see the difference between one piece and the other it seems a painful task to spend hours looking. I look at the puzzle in various stages of completion and wonder at the person who can use those certain skills in such a marvelous way. But I have no desire to participate. I think every one has there own certain set of skills and I have not been gifted with puzzle making. How about you?
It's that time of year. Tomorrow is the first day of Spring. Of course that means absolutely nothing here in Bradford. We have snow on the ground and a forecast for cold weather all week. It is testing our patience since we know other places have trees and flowers already in bloom. This would be an excellent time to do deep cleaning of closets and drawers. But without sun my ambition level is low.
Yesterday Don and I hunkered down and watched two good videos...Passengers and Solace. Don is in the middle of a winter jigsaw puzzle and I played around with some photo editing apps and got this result.
Brrr…it’s cold and the icicles are hanging from the little bit of sun we have had. It’s our last (I hope) blast of winter and I am more than ready to kiss it goodbye.
The snow is so deep that I couldn’t get the car up the driveway this morning. Our plow guy didn’t come yet so I had to use the shovel to make two tracks up the blacktop to get it to the garage. 
Time to snuggle in and enjoy. Hope that you are having a safe and warm day wherever you are.
Tatiana is dressed for winter today with her hat and scarf of snow. Overnight we had a few more inches and winter is back in full force. But oh, it's so pretty. I feel sorry for those in Florida who never get to experience the diamonds in the snow on a very cold morning.
Today is game day with my high school classmates. They love playing Marbles and so do I. This is such a fun group and we do a lot of gabbing and laughing. A great way to spend a cold day.
It started out just an ordinary day. I needed routine blood work so I went down to the local hospital. This is when I feel so lucky to live in a small town. I am only five minutes away from a great hospital and this morning I was almost the only one waiting for blood work. (The doctor's office called me in the afternoon and everything is fine). It was a much worse day today than yesterday with blowing snow and winds but it didn't stop me from meeting my friends for coffee. Afterwards was my last therapy session for my bursitis in my hips. It does feel a lot better but I don't feel it is completely healed. I will wait a few weeks, start my exercises and see how it goes.
And then I opened my mail package from my sister Linda and found these absolutely beautiful postcards to brighten my day. She is so thoughtful and knows me so well.
There were two with bunnies that had to be put out right away.
It made me really want to get out my Spring things so I ventured up in the attic. But after looking through a few bins in the freezing cold I decided to wait for a warmer day. It isn't Spring here yet.
Are you ready for Spring now?
Is it spring now? Where I live in western Pennsylvania there is snow on the ground so it is hard to get into a spring mode when it feels like winter is still here. Our area is famous for its St. Patrick's Day snowstorms. This week promises not to disappoint as we are expecting up to a foot today and tomorrow.
But nevertheless I am moving on. These cute placemats from Home Goods are helping set the mood as well as light green floral napkins with bird cage napkin rings from Pottery Barn.
You can also see my tulips and a cute majolica bunny dish. I still have to go up to the attic and raid the Spring bin for eggs and bunnies but this is a start.
On the baker's rack I my bird cage, plate and bird place mats .
And bunny sits patiently on the table waiting for better weather. I hope where you are that Spring will come soon and we all can enjoy the nice weather.
Our trip up to Buffalo to the Orchard Park Animal Hospital was uneventful but the ride home was dicey. It’s a good thing that our appointment was at ten o’clock instead of the afternoon. Dr. Brummer examined Sadie. He’s a man of very little words but his sighs told us everything we needed to know. An operation on her feet is out of the question because of her small weak bones. And her deformity where her feet are unusually turned out is permanent. Since we now have the lupus under control with a chemotherapy drug hopefully it won’t get any worse but it will never get any better. Now we face another problem. She feels good enough to try to walk but since she is walking down on her wrists she is creating sores. We can try braces and patches on the spot to help her. Now we will look into getting a special front wheelchair doggie device to maybe give her some mobility. I am shedding tears for her hopeless situation. Buffalo had no snow but on the way home the stretch from Buffalo to Ellicotville was treacherous. When we arrived home…not much snow at all.
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