Flowers At Last!

I swear this spring it was getting to the point where I thought spring would never arrive.  I jeaously looked at my west coast friends' pictures of sun and blooms on Facebook, while it was still brown, drab and cold at my house.  I still have a hard time believing the snow is done!  

Here are some pretty flower pictures taken from April 9 through the present.  These crocuses were the first up.

There's a rose of Sharon bush on the side of my house.  It's another one that blooms first and is the prettiest shade of light purple.

The lone red tulip in my front yard.

Periwinkle.

I can't remember where I took this, I think in my front yard.

This is the third spring in this house and this was the first year I noticed that the tree on the side of the driveway was a dogwood.

The lilacs finally bloomed by around May 20th.  The front yard smelled delicious.  I wish they lasted longer and bloomed more than once a year.

I love phlox.  There are white and pale purple in my yard.  I shot these in the neighbourhood.

White lilac.

Johnny jump ups are another fave of mine.  I saw these in town.

Rhododendron

No idea but I'm gonna guess azalea.

This is an azalea on the side of the driveway at my house.  I love it.

Busy bee!

Another azalea in my front yard.

In a neighbour's yard.

Sandwich in Spring

Those SE Mass posts took up so much time that I got way behind on current pics.  I went into Sandwich the first week of May to get a few snappies.  Things weren't quite at their peak yet, flowers- and leaves-wise.

This tree was really gorgeous.

Shawme Pond

One of my friends suggested that I take a photo of the pond every day for a year.  If I lived in town I might do it but not now.

Grape Hyacinth.

Grist Mill

The town finally finished re-doing this area where there's a 'bubblah' over an artesian well.  (People in MA refer to water fountains as 'bubblers').   The two of us don't care for it; we liked the stone/flagstones that was there before.

So far it's been a great month, weatherwise.  Perfect temperature and quite a bit of sun!

New Gratitude Journal

A couple years ago, my dear friend and college roomie Angie made me a Gratitude Journal, which is a composition book on which she did some awesome collage work.  I was supposed to write in it every day but I just couldn't keep up, esp. when some days I was thankful for the same things. So I started doing the gratitude lists once or twice a month which worked out better.  Plus I put thank you notes received from my friends, and some of my giveaway wins.  Finally, I started transcribing all the amazingly sweet and loving texts I get from my honey.  My phone only holds about 100 texts so I had to figure out a way to save them and I don't mind transcribing them at all.  

I finally ran out of room towards the end of March, so I made my own new Gratitude Journal which starts as of April 1.  This is the front cover.  I used bits from my paper craft supplies and I also cut stuff out of catalogs and magazines.  And that's a real metal key on the front too.

And the back.  I used double stick tape to place the items and then covered the whole thing with clear contact paper so it got a little bubbly and wrinkly in places.

This is the inside front cover.

Kind of a bad pic, but Harry Potter fans will instantly recognize and understand what 'Always' means.  The emotion behind it makes me tear up every time I think about it, and it reminds me of us, except unlike Snape, Russell got his 'Lily'.  "After all this time?"  "Always."

Yikes! Dirty camera sensor alert!  I shoot my crafts with the Pentax so please ignore the dark spots.  I also like to decorate the pages with pictures from catalogs and Chinese fortune cookie fortunes.

As a side note, I'm still keeping up with the Blessings Jar in the kitchen, but I'm noticing that much of what goes in there is also in my Gratitude Journal so it's kind of repetitive.  Do any of you note your blessings?

April

Boy did April fly by! I cannot believe we are coming into summer already.  Well....calendar-wise. I'm not sure Ma Nature got the memo.  Some bulb flowers have bloomed, some trees have buds.  The month went by really fast.  It was April Blogging from A-Z and I had a hard time keeping up and I was a bad minion for Tina, basically bailing on my task(s) by the letter G.  It wasn't enjoyable for me at all, less so than last year. So this will be my last year participating other than as a commenter.  It got off to a horrible start, IMHO.  So many bloggers abjectly refused to turn off their CAPTCHA boxes.  One didn't have their comments enabled.  One blog was 'by invite only'.  Lots signed up and bailed.  Oh, another pet peeve:  "Read More".  No. Just No.  Not taking that extra step.  Have your whole blog post showing or don't even bother.  And I apologize to my friends on Wordpress, and I hate to sound exclusionary, but maybe they should split off and host their A-Z, and Blogger can have one too.  

We had a wicked storm all day on April 15th with high winds and rain coming down in sheets.  It lasted well into the night (can't believe power stayed on) and by 5:00 AM on April 16th, it had turned to ice.  Woke up to a skim coat of ice and snow, and big fluffy flakes coming down.  I grabbed my coffee, got on line and this was greeting me on my Facebook newsfeed.  I totally cracked up.

Earlier in the week, I'd spirited away my boots and heavy coat to the back room.  Luckily the sun was out by 8:30, the crap melted, but it remained extremely windy.

Pics of the poppies on a super lazy day.

Peeps is soooo cute.  I can't believe how grey she's gotten.  My sweet girl.

Tiny guy kickin' it with his stuffies.  One night he took a stuffy with him to his crate at bedtime.  I almost died from the cuteness.

Spring giving it the ol' college try.

Gorgeous full moon on the 14th/15th.  There was a total lunar eclipse but at 3:00 AM I wasn't about to actively seek it out.

Me and the hubby visited the big flea market in Wareham one Saturday.  I got those small Easter figurines for .10 each.  So $1 for all 10!!  Couple watches and a tiny pagoda, and that whole thing of beads for just $2.50!!

I can't believe I spotted this amongst all the stuff that was in one of the booths.  I had a major league brainwave idea for this wee pagoda!

We don't observe Easter from a religious or egg hunt standpoint, but it was a really nice day so we took a walk on the Canal, went for ice cream at Canal Creamery and then browsed the Whatchamacallit Shop for a bit before heading home.  I took this pic in the ice cream store.  Their ice cream was really good too.  Lots of flavours to choose from.  I got oreo and Russell got black raspberry.  

I saw these lovely beaded and wired pentacles on Pinterest by Elemental Enchantments.  I love all of their work.  I decided to try and make one.

Well mine's somewhat warped because I had a hard time with the wire.  I used chop sticks which, of course, didn't lay very well because they had to be stacked at the tips.  I really had to wing it with this project and another 'only one will be made' items.  I started to regret starting but I also wanted to finish cause I hate unfinished projects and now it can be crossed off my 'Crafts to Make Bucket List', and maybe order a real one from Elemental Enchantments!  I gave this to my friend Sheila to give to her daughter Melody.

Other than that, just dealt with some nagging health issues.  My elbow is still giving me a ton of trouble.  I took too much advil and that caused some bad stomach pains.  My dad had ulcers when he was in his late 40s; I remember being really little and taken to see him in the hospital.  That meant I couldn't take anything for pain at all for a few days so the elbow flared up.  Also, taking a break from crafting was really difficult and that's just exacerbated things.  Bad headaches have also started to become a problem, as has back pain.  But my doctor is in Hyannis, which means all referral appointments would be there too and I'm just unwilling to keep having to drive there, esp. with spring and summer coming on.  I am hoping that I can get back to walking now that it appears that spring is indeed on the way.  I just can't believe the first 4 months of the year are over already!