Time for a blogging break

With the nicer weather I have decided to take a little blogging break for a week. I thank you for being a faithful reader and commenter and I appreciate you all greatly. But there are things to get done and I find not much to talk about these days. So I will come back refreshed.

More signs of spring

I love the climbing hydrangea. It fills up the space along the garage and adds a wall of green. Last year it bloomed for the very first time..probably due to the fertilizer I gave it. I plan to do that again this year.

We always need to give it a good pruning or it will take over everything.

Last year I made this leaf from cement. What a beautiful day it is today. It is up to seventy five degrees and the birds are singing their hearts out. Sadie even wanted to go into the back yard and is sitting at the foot of the huge maple tree that has a hole in the bottom sniffing for squirrels. How glorious this day is!

Why am I not a flower?

“I should be called a flower”, the dandelion said. “After all, aren’t I cute with my bright yellow bloom and my beautifully shaped leaves? And I am such a good grower. Everyone should be happy to have me in their garden. I would puff my seeds all over and soon the whole space would be filled with yellow. And I bloom all summer long and I am very hardy. Why aren’t I called a flower?”

sprouting out

"Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love." --Sitting Bull

Who cannot love a peony?

And the wind upon its way whispered the boughs of May, And touched the nodding peony flowers to bid them waken.

This is the first flower on the bank to bloom. I had all new landscaping on the bank last fall and I will be excited to see it all bloom.

One lovely pink tulip is hiding among the grape hyacinths.

 

Fee, fi, Faux

I am definitely pro faux. I love making arrangements with fake flowers. I know there are purists out there that are taking in a quick inhale in horror.
 

This little arrangement in a tray features mercury glass, a smooth green vase and a textured mossy looking vase along a variety of violets.
My little silver birds moved to a mossy spot on the corner of the tray.

This arrangement in the center of the table is so cheery.

55

It’s hard to believe that we will be having our 55th high school reunion this summer. I’ve been involved in the reunion committee for a number of years and enjoy meeting with my former classmates to make plans.

We met at my house to finalize our plans. There are eight of us on the committee.

I still have my Easter eggs and decorations out for Spring. I found these cute springy napkins at the Christmas Tree Shop. Have you ever shopped there? It is not a Christmas store but has a little of everything at very reasonable prices. It is the kind of store that you love to wander around in just to see what you can find. I always come out with something. My favorite thing to buy there is Nonni’s salted caramel biscotti. They also carry a variety of Waverly napkins and linens. I bought my white ironstone small tureens there too.

Do you have a favorite store like that?

Summer in April

My son and family live in Knoxville, TN and it’s a different world down there. There is so much for the kids to do. My son works at a huge waterpark resort and they had a day for employees and their families.

Since Ryan has been involved in aquatics all his life the kids have been in the water since before they could walk and are great swimmers. They have their own pool at home and love water parks.
And they have a great time every time they go.

And of course Sara has to pose. What a fun time they had! I couldn’t resist Photoshopping it.

Dance with the daffodils

 

It is the most glorious of seasons. Bright yellow dots the landscape with clumps of blooms. Who could not be happy when you see a bunch of daffodils?

 

Daffodils are so welcome after the long white and gray winter. And the wonderful thing about daffodils is that they spread. Even if you only plant one you will have a garden full in a few years. A daffodil bulb will divide and redivide endlessly. That's why it is one of the few flowers you can find around abandoned farmhouses, still blooming and increasing in numbers many years after the farmer and his wife have moved. If you dig them up and take these home, separate them and plant them in your own yard, within a couple of years, you'll have a hundred daffodils for the mere price of a trespassing fine.

 

 

 

She turned to the sunlight

And shook her yellow head,

And whispered to her neighbor:

Winter is dead.

----A.A. Milne, When we WEre Very Young

Flower arrangement: just two yellow daffodils, the first to bloom

--L. A. Davidson, The Shape of the Tree

Daffidodowndilly has come to town, in a yellow petticoat and a green gown.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Sadie’s wheelchair

Don made this wheelchair to help Sadie walk. He is so clever to be able to put this together from a baby umbrella stroller. It is very sturdy. We had to use different wheels on the front so they would turn easily. We still need to adjust the fabric to get it just the right height so she can push it around. She just tolerates it now and isn’t really happy about being in it. But if we can get her mobile so she can move around we will be very happy. Right now I don’t want her walking on her front legs which are splayed out to the side so we carry her everywhere.

Happy Easter

Sara in her Easter dress

 

 

Happy Easter to you readers. I hope that you are having a joyous day. This is the first Easter that we have not been with our family which is very different for us. It didn’t work out this year. I’ve never spent a holiday alone with just Don so this is difficult. I spent part of the day outside in the seventy two degree temperature weeding and cleaning up the flower beds. Later on we will go out to dinner. The peonies are starting to bloom already and the new planting on the bank are growing also. It is going to be a surprise to see what will come up and bloom since I had new landscaping done last year. I can’t wait to get the fountains going but it is really much too soon. We could still have snow. The daffodils look so pretty out front. 

These little flowers coming up are from a friend. I can’t wait until they bloom. I can’t remember what she called them but they spread.

Don never forgets to get me flowers for special occasions. This year the pink geraniums are perfect and lifted my spirits.

Burst of energy

Sunshine is my drug. Yesterday I felt like I had a shot of Vitamin D because I had so much energy. It was the first day that I felt like it was really Spring. While Don mowed the lawn I went up into the back yard and picked up branches and sticks that had fallen during the winter. We have large very old hemlock, maple, and pine trees there and the strong winds of winter had shaken many small branches down. It must have bent over two hundred times. Good for the waistline. In the backyard I found a small object which I had no idea what it was but it looked important like a part to something. Later on when Don came in the house and was complaining that he had lost the part that held the chute for the bagger and I pulled the part right out of my pocket and said "Is this it?" Wow, did that make him happy.

After that I did some gardening. I cleaned up my picket fence area and herb garden, used the blower to clean off the driveway, weeded and cut back all the debris from the bank garden and picked up all the oak leaves. I even got out my pineapple fountain. It was a busy day and very productive.

The good thing was that my hip doesn't hurt anymore and that is why I was able to get so much done. The exercises have done their job and stretched out my leg muscles so they don't irritate the bursa sack. This time I will continue to do them everyday so it doesn't come back.

It felt great to accomplish so much. Now today I am going to get out my porch swing. I know in Bradford it could still snow again but I hope not.

Posted with Blogsy

I have lived my life

“When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.”

This quote by Mary Oliver struck me today. Maybe it is why I feel so restless sometimes. Why I’m always stretching myself intellectually. Why I’m curious about the world and love to travel. I want to experience everything. If you’ve never lived in a small town you probably don’t realize the limitations. We have no museums, art galleries, coffee houses full of interesting people. There are not many stimulating events. It is not always easy to learn new things here. Despite that I try to find activities which will make my soul come alive. There is an occasional continuing education class at the University of Pittsburgh Bradford (this time I am signed up for two photography workshops). And in an hour and a half I can be to either Erie or Buffalo. I am seeking to fill my life with as much as I can for my Autumn is turning to Winter. I know some are so contented to be just where they are and love the place they are in. I am too to some degree. I love my home, my friends, my family. But just sometimes I want more.

  How do you feel about that? Are you a wanderer or a homebody?

 

 

Do what makes you happy

Today is the day for quotes. I love a good quote and the wisdom it imparts. Sometimes it says things I am thinking and sometimes its a whole new revelation. We can learn a lot from reading quotes.

Do you have a favorite quotation?

 

 

 

 

My favorite saying for the tech world we live in

My favorite saying in this new computer world is “I love computers….when they work”.  But when they don’t it can make you pull your hair out one strand at a time. This is what I have been dealing with for two days.

 

 

 

   I blog on my big computer most of the time. I use a program called Open Live Writer. Yesterday the program decided it was tired of opening and wouldn’t come up so I could blog. So I spent three hours trying to figure out why. I tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it but it wouldn’t reinstall at all. I couldn’t figure out why.

  Then I decided to use a different program called Windows Live Writer. I couldn’t get that to work at all and spent another two or three hours today trying to research and trying all kinds of ways to make it work. Only to find out that Windows no longer supports Live Writer as of December. so that was out.

 

  Then I tried to install Open Live Writer again and it wouldn’t work. I walked away for a while wanting to go bang my head against the wall. I was about to restart my computer when I saw a little message in the corner that said Open Live Writer was installed. And lo and behold! It was. And now it works …again.

  I am no computer guru by any means and I was so grateful that it worked itself out somehow..I have no idea how. So I am back in the blogging business!!!