Deep purple is my favorite color. Whenever I see it, my soul reacts, with happiness welling up inside and spilling over. Spring is one time of the year where our yard reflects my love of the color.
These are to one side of the top of our driveway.These are to the other side.back yard planter
They are blooming almost all the way down one side of the driveway now. When they are finished, yellow ones take over.
I hope our wisteria hasn’t been beaten down by the hail.
You can see my heart is really full this time of year. There is much to do in the yard, and little time right now to do it between severe weather. Soon things will tame down (hopefully) and I can get our planters weeded and cleared out, tomato plants in, and buy some purple petunias for the deck. :0)
I checked the weather website yesterday evening right before dark to find that, not only were we supposed to get rain after sunset, but HAIL. I went out and clothes-pinned sheets over my veggie planter boxes to protect my sweet, young veggies as much as I could.
It DID storm overnight and we’re still under a ‘thunderstorm and hail’ forecast this morning. It’s raining and very dark outside now, though the thunder and lightning are so noticeable. It looks like the sheets won’t come off until at least lunch time. I hope the plants don’t get squashed by the weight of the wet sheets!
Here was what 3 of the 6 garden boxes looked like last night –
We’re going to have a nice display of twice-blooming deep purple iris soon. As you can see, I need to clean up this planter a lot. I’ll try to thin these out, moving them elsewhere around the yard.The wisteria is looking better each day. There is a small redbud tree behind the wisteria, plus a forsythia blooming behind it, too. A display like this really brings up my spirits!
It’s cool here (45 degrees F. and a pretty good breeze), but I needed some spirit-lifting and took my camera outside to walk around and see what I could see.
tulip treetulip tree blossom closeupjust one of the groups of daffodilsRedbud starting to bloomForsythia starting to bloomWisteria budsHarder to be down when Mother Nature is starting to put on her annual show! :0)
“Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun.” — Kahlil Gibran
It started raining last night and is still raining today.
I got my early spring garden planted, so I’m really happy about the rain, even if we drown going to Lunch Bunch today. :0)
Two days ago I got some leaf lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower plants in my raised bed, square foot garden. Yesterday I planted to bunches of red onion sets. I don’t have the irrigation timer installed yet, so I was really glad to see we were expecting rain last night. The garden is started! I’ll probably plant some radish seeds, plus more lettuce (my husband likes me to try head lettuce) if we can find it, but basically, the early spring garden is in. (This photo shows three of the six planter boxes. I took it before I planted the onion sets.)
I’m looking forward to seeing my friends for Lunch Bunch today. It’s a big moment of ‘normal’ in a chaotic, scary world, and I treasure it, and my friends. We’ll probably stop at Real Food on the way home to see if we can find some goodies to bring home.
Since working outside isn’t in the cards today, I’ll concentrate on cleaning some of the inside. Most of what I vacuum up is dog hair. You would think Amber would be completely bald by now.
I hope that you can stay safe, warm and dry today.
Some wise person said, ‘If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” or words to that effect. I just checked outside again, and the white stuff is clearly falling now. No accumulation on the ground yet, but you can easily see it’s snowing. Oh, joy.
Grudgingly this time, I’m sharing some more snow creations from really creative folks who obviously enjoy the snow more than I do right now. I truly love the imagination and humor shown, and delight when I find new examples. :0)
Petr VaclavekFamily Fun in Omahalushome.comwtkr.comDecor UnitsDecor UnitsJust Something (Creative)
My husband laboriously negotiated our ski slope of a driveway to get several days worth of mail yesterday, then again when he received an email that UPS had left a package for us at the bottom of our driveway. Since our driveway is STEEP and 650+ feet, it was quite a bit of exercise. We have sunshine today, and our afternoon temperatures are supposed to be above freezing (33 degrees F. now), so we may finally start getting some melting. I figure it’ll be another day or two before we have our freedom to come and go as desired again.
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I’m ready to put winter and February behind me. My heart is in the garden, playing in the dirt, envisioning colorful flowers and veggies. Maybe in another 2 or 3 weeks, I can think about finding some early spring plants to get going.
Otherwise, one of my dear friends made me feel really special yesterday, and I’m still glowing from it today. She creates drool-worthy jewelry, mainly from silver. She branches out from time to time into copper, one of MY favorite metals. Yesterday, in the mail my husband retrieved, there was a package from her with SEVERAL pieces of copper jewelry – earrings, a bracelet, and two necklaces! A feast for the eyes, I keep changing which is my favorite. I can’t wait to show them off to my Lunch Bunch friends. :0)
Isn’t this an amazing .gif? I don’t know how these are created, but I’m in awe of the talent and creativity of these smart people.
Our snow has stopped now. We only got about 3 inches, but when you have a 650+ foot STEEP driveway, it’s enough to keep us inside. (At least I HOPE. My husband sometimes considers the snow and danger for us a challenge to prove we CAN get down and up our driveway again.) I don’t know yet if the evergreens along the driveway are drooping down into it, cutting off passage. It’s 24 degrees F., but is supposed to get above freezing this afternoon. Maybe the driveway will start melting. Our driveway pad is clear, and the streets may be clear, but the world is white and pristine as far as we can see right now.
I was a good girl yesterday, balancing checkbooks, paying bills, finishing the bookkeeping for December, filing, and getting the makings of beef stew ready to go into the crock pot for today. I’m PLANNING to clean off my desk and then clean up the kitchen, unless I’m overtaken by the great sloth that flourishes inside me. :0)
I have to admit that winter is not my favorite season. That said, there are many things I LOVE about it –
I’ve always loved sweaters and layers and boots, shawls, mufflers, crocheted hats with snowballs on top, gloves, snuggling under throws, sitting by the fireplace.
istockphoto
Snow people and critters have a special place in my heart. I’ve rarely been in enough snow to actually make them, but really enjoy the creativity shown by people, and wonderful photos like the one with the fox and the snowman above. That one made me laugh out loud when I found it. :0)
Essence of Lursa on Twitter
When my husband and I started dating a hundred years or so ago (he was 17 and I was 14), we had a rare, really good snow in Arkansas. We celebrated by building two snow people in the front yard of my parents’ home. I built a traditional snowman. My husband built an extremely well-endowed female snow person. They met with a sad ‘accident’ pretty quickly – I think due to my mom instructing my dad to ‘modify’ them before she got complaints from the neighbors…
Gifer
My parents had a gorgeous, open design fireplace. Somehow, it was designed to be open at one corner of the bricks so you could see it ‘around the corner’ – in the foyer and also in the living room. I’m still amazed at the design. My parents had a gas insert because they wanted to be able to turn the fire on and off when they wanted and didn’t have to store or haul firewood. I have many memories of sitting in a sling chair beside it, or sitting on the hearth in front of it, warming my back.
We have a fireplace insert in our home now. You can’t see the fire well unless you keep the doors open on the insert. It’s made for efficiency and a heat source in case our regular heat isn’t working. We have firewood stored and always have a fire laid, ready for the strike of a match to start it. When we don’t have anywhere we need to be and the weather is really cold, we light it for the COMFORT and good feelings it brings, rather than the need. A definite, wonderful luxury.
Comfort food is wonderful. My mom made big cast iron skillets of spaghetti sauce and garlic bread, and a lovely bean soup. I like to get a beef stew going in the crock pot, serving that with a crust of bread. I also love grilled cheese sandwich and soup dinners.
My favorite snow is one with huge, beautiful flakes like in a snow globe. It coats the ground in pristine, glorious white, looking beautiful. If there are children around, enough for a snowball fight, snow angels, or maybe a snowman. Then, the sun comes out right away, the temperature warms, and the snow is melted on our driveway and the roads, leaving it on the ground otherwise. Fantasies are made to be enjoyed. :0)
My husband and I are petting each other on the head because we just finished changing the regular tires on the truck for our snow tires.
No bad words, no tears were shed, no one was hurt, and high fives for all. We even had an easier time of it than we did last time, when two of the tires did NOT want to line up with the wheel studs.
The tires are on now safely, aired up to the proper pressure, and the truck is back in the garage. The shop has been straightened up and we’re having a cold drink and a good rest.
The trees are NOT colorful here in this part of Arkansas this year. We’ve lost a TON of leaves already. So I was amazed when I looked out the back door two nights ago just before sunset and saw all the COLOR all the way across our valley. I’ve never seen it this way before, like the trees were bursting with light. I tried to get some pics, but most of them didn’t come out right. These two were the best I could do at the time.
I melted into a puddle when I saw this puppy. I couldn’t resist giving him whatever he wanted. Those eyes. :0)
We had lots of severe weather last night. It was all around us, but mostly went just north of us, with tornadoes, really high gusty winds, hail, lightning, heavy rain, flooding, and flying hairballs. Lots of people lost power, had damage, etc. A semi was blown onto its side on one of the main highways through Fort Smith. Trees were down, some on homes, and more. Several of the public schools in our area of Arkansas went back to Zoom learning due to damage and lack of power. I don’t think any lives were lost.
We lucked out. We walked around checking our roof and yard. I checked my veggie plants. We had some leaves and branches in the yard, but just little stuff.
We did our errands this morning, taking our trash down to the bottom of our driveway (650 feet steeply down to the street in front of our home). No damage on the driveway. We didn’t notice any damage in Greenwood as we did our errands.
We are home now, hoping for a quiet day. I finished getting things back in place yesterday after our new carpet and porch flooring project. I’m determined to keep getting rid of STUFF. I’m trying to get into a ruthless state of mind. Hopefully I can make some significant progress – AFTER I rest from moving all the stuff OUT and then back IN to our office, living room, foyer, and porch!
I hope that you are safe and well, enjoying a quiet Tuesday.
We’re due for possible severe storms this evening, so I went out to get some pictures, just in case, so I could share them with you.
Our rose bushes were in awful shape – with straggly branches way up over my head – so I cut them back by a good 2/3. I figured that either they would be happy about it or we needed to start over. Happily, you can see that this one is already blooming with a bunch of buds. :0)
This sweet bunch of flowers tries to bloom each year. Usually, we have a bad storm just at the time these need a bit of protection. I try to get a picture or two, because they don’t usually make it through the storm.
It raises my spirits to walk around the yard, seeing HOPE in the planters.
This wonderful .gif isn’t from OUR deck, but my husband saw our first hummingbird this morning while we were sitting at the dining area trying to wake up.
We didn’t have a feeder out there yet, so we jumped up, ran up the ladder in the garage, grabbed one of the feeders. I made some hummingbird food quickly and my husband took it out to hang on the deck.
Nothing could have lifted my spirits more. (Well, learning that we won the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes would have certainly raised them, too.) :0)
It’s 37 degrees, gray and rainy here today. UGH. I know that ‘spring’ doesn’t begin officially until Saturday, but I’ve been more than ready for a LONG time now.
I was HOPING to go to the local co-op today to get veggie plants for my garden, but I felt like I was freezing to death just putting out fresh bird seed and suet this morning.
joyfullearninginkc.blogspot.com
I feel guilty griping about our weather. We dodged a bullet of possible severe stuff yesterday, and that system has now moved east, threatening other good people today. I hope everyone stays safe.
Although our last spring frost is technically April 5th here, there are signs of spring everywhere I look outside! I couldn’t be more ready.
Yesterday I planted the elephant ear bulbs I’ve had in our garage in a trash can of Mel’s Mix (soil alternative). The bulbs were ‘slimy’ on the outside (ICK!) but I dug the deepest holes I could in the planter and planted them. I have no clue what will happen – if anything – now. If they DON’T sprout new growth, we’ll look around and see if we can get replacement bulbs. We really enjoyed the display last year.
Our tulip tree is blooming!
It’s hard to be down when Mother Nature’s beauty is blooming its heart out all around you.
We walked down the driveway right after lunch today to get to our truck my husband had to abandon yesterday, not being able to come back up our driveway. We cautiously backed down a seemingly endless amount, sliding a lot, before we were on the street in front of our house. We were delighted to find that our driveway was the only bad spot between our house and town.
We were able to get a microwave that was almost exactly the same as the one we loved that died. It’s a 2.2 cubic foot Panasonic with turbo defroster, genius sensor, etc. The only difference is that the new one has 100 watts less power than the old one. We are beyond delighted. My husband celebrated by warming up a cup of coffee. :0)
The only other excitement in our trip was trying to get back up our driveway. The first time we made it up about 1/3 of the way, but then started sliding around, losing traction. My husband had to carefully back all the way down to the bottom to give it another try. I thought we would end up stuck in the deep ditch on one side of the driveway or the other.
The second time he ‘went for broke.’ We started sliding about half way up, but managed to gain some traction and got over the middle, really steep part of the driveway. I had been holding my breath and firmly keeping my big mouth shut, so it took me a minute or two to calm down. My husband is a much gutsier driver than I, and gutsy is what it took today.
So the truck is in the garage safely now. Hopefully, by the end of the day tomorrow our ice and snow on the driveway will be only a memory.
This gives you a bit of an idea of our driveway. This isn’t ours. Ours is graveled, 650 feet +, and STEEP. We had no choice about it being on the north side of our property.
My husband insisted he was going out yesterday to get some sugary treats at the local grocery store. I told him he really should wait – that we could go together Sunday afternoon after more melting occurred. He scoffed and went anyway.
He came back about an hour later with the sugary treats, but without the truck. He was unable to get back up our driveway and left the truck about 3/4 of the way down. He later tried to retrieve the truck, but had to leave it down there.
Today we will walk down the driveway, trying to NOT fall on our heads, hopefully back the truck down to the road, go to town and replenish supplies (my husband said the roads are pretty clear now – our driveway is probably the worst place in town) and then hopefully be able to drive back up and put the truck in the garage.
I’m still amazed that my husband told me I was RIGHT. Right about yesterday being too soon to go to town, and right about the fact that I thought we should put the snow tires on the truck at the end of the fall as we usually do. My mouth is still hanging open.
It’s 41 degrees F. out there now, so we should have ‘a whole lot of meltin’ goin’ on’ (thanks to my smart SIL – and Elvis, of course – for the title.) The forecast for today is RAIN. I won’t complain – even if we drown.
The forecast shows a slow warming trend here, so maybe we’ll be able to find our driveway in the coming days! I am hoping that I can convince my husband to wait at least until tomorrow afternoon before trying to negotiate our way down to the street that runs in front of our house.
Our microwave finally gave up the ghost, so this spoiled lady has been having to get off her duff and do some cooking, rather than simply heating up delicious, healthy frozen meals from REAL FOOD and STU’S CLEAN COOKIN’ in Greenwood.
Yesterday I cooked a chuck roast in the crock pot all afternoon. We had some of that, plus some rice, gravy, and peas. I am planning to spoon out some of the leftovers into oven containers to heat up for tonight.
I am learning to be careful what I gripe about! Not long ago I was griping because I wanted some comfort food to help us through the ice and snow we’ve had for about 3 weeks now. At that point I was taking my microwave for granted. NOW that has all changed.
In times like these, we learn what a great life we have and how VERY much we have to be thankful for. We cancelled Lunch Bunch for today. Yesterday I talked to one of my Lunch Bunch friends. Not only was she snowed in, but her main water pipe had burst and she was waiting for the plumber to come and try to repair it. Plus my heart truly goes out to the people suffering in Texas. I gripe about small annoyances while they try to get warm and find SOMETHING to eat.
Diets, extra lardage, and inconveniences, such as the lack of a microwave don’t even get on the bottom rung of what is important right now. May we all get through this winter so we can enjoy the promise of spring.
The saga of small annoyances vs real problems continues in the Lewis household.
A month or so ago, the dish inside the microwave that turns when the food is cooking to ensure even heating quit working. I looked up our records and the microwave was purchased in 2005. We have certainly gotten our money’s worth.
My husband is really good at fixing things. He figured out a way to fix the microwave so the plate turned again. Things went fine until yesterday, when the plate stopped turning again. My husband immediately squashed ideas of getting a new one – assuming we will EVER be able to negotiate our steep driveway and the roads between our home and town again. (We are into our second week of being completely stuck up on top of our ridge line – the first week due to ice and this week due to snow. We still have about 8 inches on the ground, so we MAY be able to get out by NEXT week some time if the sun stays out and the temperatures warm up from the current 15 degrees F.)
My husband went to work on the microwave again and we tested it this morning. It ran – and the plastic ‘thingie’ in the center of the floor of the microwave turned – for about 3 seconds and then the whole microwave shut off. It is now clear that the microwave is completely dead this time, no matter how smart or inventive he is.
I explain all this because we have been thoroughly enjoying frozen dinners from two new places in town – Real Food, and Stu’s Clean Cookin.’ These are individual dinners, portion controlled, healthy, and delicious. We have quickly become spoiled.
“I” will need to get inventive now on defrosting these on the counter, then transferring them to oven dishes, then figuring out how long – and at what temperature – to heat them up. In the meantime, I’ll cook a roast for tonight in the crock pot.
As I began when I started this post, this is a small annoyance vs the very real and dangerous problems many good people in the United States are facing right now. I feel a bit guilty even mentioning something as small as this. The pandemic, cabin fever, and the trying to diet have all combined to make me a rather gripe-y lady.
In about 1977 we moved from Tulsa OK to Greenwood AR so my husband could take a job here. We like the idea of living in Arkansas because of the mild winters and unusual occurrence of snow and ice. HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! About 20 years ago we had a truly awful ice storm from which the whole area has never really recovered. We lost a BUNCH of wonderful trees, changing the landscape and causing people a lot of grief. My husband had mentioned that it was about time for another ice storm…
All of last wee we were iced in. We had some broken limbs and fallen trees, but they didn’t fall across the driveway, so we were very grateful. We had enough melting that last Saturday we were finally able to get out. We emptied our mailbox, filled up with gas, and got some food and supplies. By Saturday night, it was snowing.
Look at this sweet cardinal in our bottle bird feeder from this morning. Usually, only the smaller birds use this feeder. I checked a while ago, and the cardinal found his way out of the bottle. I will make my way out to the main feeder and fill it up soon. We have a double dose of suet hanging, so the birds will be taken care of as well as possible.
I’m not sure how much snow we have on the ground now. Maybe 6 to 8 inches, which is a LOT for Arkansas. By Friday, the temperatures MAY cause it to start melting.
I have stayed inside, mostly, because it is WAAAAAY too cold and slippery for an old broad to be sliding around.
It’s hard to see that we have STEPS down to a concrete pad in front of the porch! Did I happen to mention how ready I am for SPRING?
“Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.” ~ Vladimir Nabokov
Clouds, drizzle, rain, gusty wind, hail, flooding, flying hair balls – all on tap for us today, overnight, and into the day tomorrow if the weather forecasters have it right. UGH.
We live on top of a ridge line, so we don’t have a large concern about flooding around our house, but we DO have some concern about lightning and hail, plus gusty winds. In the past several months we have had several more serious storms- resulting in several trees breaking and falling down on either side of the driveway. Happily, they fell AWAY from the driveway, rather than into it or across it, so we are simply ignoring it for right now.
This is a wonderful day to enjoy a warm, dry house.
PandaLifeHacks
“And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.” ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton
Mother Nature is laughing at us again. Today is a miracle for a day in January in Arkansas – bright and sun-shine-y and 58 degrees F. It is simply gorgeous.
Tomorrow a cold front with heavy rain, plunging temperature, possible sleet and snow, plus flying hairballs is forecast.
All we can do is hang on and try to enjoy the ride!
As it happens, we are having a lovely day today – sunny with highs in the 60’s today. :0) I’m planning to at LEAST walk around in our yard today, telling Mother Nature what a great day she produced, if not do some actual work out there.
USPS emailed me this morning that two packages I mailed recently are out for delivery. I really enjoy making things and sending them to people, no matter what time of the year. I love reminding people that they mean so much to me.
Amber
Amber thinks she is a lapdog. She weighs around 95 lbs. She comes up to my chair in our office with a gleam in her eye. She stuffs her wet nose under my arm as I type. I look at her, stop and pet her, speak to her, maybe kiss her on the head, and then go back to typing.
The next thing I know, as reliable as clockwork, the front half of Amber is up in my chair with me. I have the bruises on my legs to prove it! I have to stop everything and watch out, being very careful. She whips her head around, trying to be everywhere at once. If I don’t watch out, she clocks me in the face with her head. We love, with me laughing every morning before she will back off and climb down. We usually do this 5 or 6 times each morning.
I found the picture below on BoredPanda and wanted to share it with you. Amber isn’t THIS large, but you can certainly share the feeling.
This is ALMOST my favorite kind of snow. We had flakes that kept getting larger and larger as time passed. We ended up getting about 3 inches, I think. It fell softly, coating each branch of our trees so that they were outlined, almost as if they were painted by some careful hand.
My favorite kind of snow is just like this, except that it’s perfect for making snow critters and then GONE off streets and driveways by the end of the day. We are snowed in today, since we haven’t put snow tires on our truck yet and our driveway is over 650 feet long and STEEP. We can just admire the beauty and stay home.
I’m trying to convince my husband that we’re a bit ‘long-in-the-tooth’ to change from regular tires to the snow tires ourselves, but he won’t listen. If our driveway isn’t clear by tomorrow, we will probably start our day changing tires in the shop before our doctor’s appointment and other errands.
We have bright sunshine right now, so maybe I’ll catch a break.
creativeartworksblog 