Ode to Spring...

Our household is slowly returning to normal. When my husband left this morning he said he was going to dad's apartment after work and I realized that I wouldn't be hearing that sentence anymore after hearing it almost daily for the last two years. Once Wendell's apartment is cleared out, those kinds of chores will cease, and just the memories will remain.

It was a lovely morning this morning. When the weather turns nice, I usually go "walkabout" first thing with a cup of coffee. Nothing breaks ground that I don't see. The snowdrops have come and gone, their tiny nodding heads are sleeping for another year. This year there wasn't any snow for them to break through. The yellow tulips are in full bloom. My first yellow tulips were a gift from Holland brought back in a briefcase by one of my engineers. John Winkler, if you're reading this, I'm thinking about you as I always do when the yellow tulips bloom. The crab apple tree outside the craft room is just starting to bloom. There are lots of pale pink flowers next to the raspberry colored buds. There will be a heavy crop of crab apples for the birds this year. The peonies are up about a foot, the lilacs will be blooming by the end of the week. The fish are feeding so the water temperature is over 50 degrees. There are a dozen toads in the skimmer - all looking for love. They were singing last night in 12 part harmony. Is spring always so noisy? This morning we awakened to a cacophony of birds and the residue of the toads, but the breeze was sweet. I’m a morning person; I love to watch the sun come over the horizon and hear the world wake up. There is one speckled egg in the titmouse house. I will check this afternoon to see if she laid it this morning or yesterday. She can lay from five to eight eggs before she starts to incubate. Fourteen days to hatching, eighteen days to fledging and they can do that twice a year. On a discouraging note, the bluebirds have not been seen since last week. The nest box on the fence is still empty although a pair of titmice has checked it out. The chickadees are looking at the house on the arbor and the wren has been in the wren house on the other end of the fence. I’m afraid I won’t have bluebirds during the first nesting, but we can hope they will return later in the season.





Paper: Debbie Mumm Noah's Ark; Stamps: Magnolia Sitting Fall Tilda, Magnolia Flowers, Papertrey; Spica: Clear; Martha Stewart Butterfly Punches; Spellbinder Dies; Stickles: Yellow; Copics: E11, E00E000, B91, B93, B95, Y11, Y04, Y35, YR16, E31, E33, E29, E25, BV01, BV04, E53, G24, B32, Y18, Y08, YG23, YG25. Background on the diecuts was airbrushed with B32, B91 and G24. Butterflies were airbrushed with Y11 and B91.

One more note: I was Copic certified on Sunday, so whoohoo; which is not to be confused with yeehaw or Amen. Kudos to Sally Lynn MacDonald for a wonderful, informative class with some giggles thrown in for good measure.