"...tender signs of the infant year just peeping forth with the stately beauty..."  Henry David Thoreau

Oh spring, we welcome you with joy and open arms.  How I adore all the spring blossoms.

Azaleas with many shades of pink...my favorite color! 

Red buds springing out on what will be new branches. 

And then my beloved lilacs, just beginning to open and they still smell like heaven. 

Some sweet smelling flower that sprung up in Mom's yard.  I know the pictures just don't do justice to the true beauty but they sustain me in the long, cold barren days of winter.

We had barely finished putting away groceries from our trip to the HyVee when Mom called and asked if the Professor might come over a dig a couple of holes for her new azalea plants.  We obliged and the Professor dug several holes until Mom decided where the exact perfect spot was!  My dear husband was the model of patience and understanding.  



Mom pointed out with exasperation, a squirrel had taken over the wren house.  He now lives in the box and enjoys his southern exposure.  He did renovate by chewing a very small entrance into one that accommodated his girth.

The Professor was delighted that some of the sushi survived the winter in Mom's pond. The day after we got married last June we went and bought her 15 small feeder goldfish for her pond. A neighborhood cat had fished out all of her last bunch. So you can see, just barely the 3 gold fish in the center of the picture. They are named Sushi 1 through 3. Professor also spotted Blackie, the one black one that we bought too. Black is smiling here, it's just hard to spot him in the pic.

So this morning, I asked my Caribbean Prince if he wanted to go to the grocery with me.  He wrinkled his whole face and said no, so I got dressed and grabbed my keys and went to give him a kiss.  He was in the bathroom fussing with his hair.  He likes to pat it down with a piece of paper, I frankly can't tell a difference with the before and after image but okay.  So I said good bye and he asked me why I was leaving without him.

There is one aisle that I love up at my HyVee.  They always have such girlish delights that warm my heart.  Most of the time, they are way to rich for my pocket book but I enjoy looking.  I loved the floral wreath and it would look splendid on my front door, but I didn't want to pay $48!

There was the sweetest tea pot and tea cup and saucer with violets on them.  I couldn't find a price tag but I sure did love them. 

Two weeks ago I saw a love seat in the Thrift Shop that I fell in L-O-V-E with.  It was $45 and I knew I would love it for my Happy Room.  I passed it by.  This past Monday Professor and I went to the Thrift Shop to look for a nice television stand for Brother 1's new flat screen.  We found a really nice one, black with side shelves and smoked glass doors with shelves behind them.  We paid $12.50!  Well, Professor asks if the love seat was still there.  It was, we bought it $22.50! 

We weren't sure how to get it home, it definitely wouldn't fit in the Civic, so I took the cushions and the arm doilies and one of the pillows.  I didn't want them to sell it again and since we have 3 days to pick it up we told them we had to find someone to help us. 

I'll be darned if they didn't give the Professor a hard time when he went back to get it.  They HAD tried to sell it again but couldn't since the seat cushions were gone and the volunteers who sold it to us hadn't done their job right which caused all the problems.  I was at work when my beloved tried to claim our find and my Mom went up there and read the management the riot act.  My love seat is NOW ensconced happily in my Happy Room where my rear end is firmly planted most of the time.

I am going to make some baked ziti for dinner tonight.  That sounds so yummy.  I made fried rice on Monday, I used up the last of the soy sauce.  As we were sitting down to eat, I told my dear and darling husband, I had used the last of the soy sauce and wished he had told me we needed some when I was at the grocery earlier.  Moments later he gets up and is rummaging through the cupboards..."Hon, where's the soy sauce?"  Clearly he hangs on my every word.

Please take time to smell the flowers where you, my bosom friends, dwell.  I pray your Thickets are as lovely, refreshing and soul restoring as the Professor's and mine.  God Bless Us Everyone!

Pinch my ginger buns....please!

Spring is busting out all over the Lilac Thicket.  The Professor was excited about the "yellow flowers" that were blooming in the front yard amongst the chaos of dried leaves from last autumn.  It is wonderful to see the forsythia, red bud, Bradford pear and all the other yummy trees and bushes budding out.

It's hard to tell from this picture but storm clouds are gathering and we may get some rain today.  I love spring storms.  Oh and I even have had the air conditioner running.  I know it's early but I hate sweating glistening in the heat.  And it has been hot..near 80°.

So Tuesday was my sister, Princess Jujubead's birthday.  Wednesday was her husband's birthday.  So later today Professor and I will mosey over there to deliver birthday presents. Better late then never, right?

Last weekend Professor got bit by the baking bug and he made "ginger buns".  They are a barely sweet treat his mother used to make in Guyana.  Mind you we had no recipe but he made them from memory.  We had to go to the grocery to get fresh coconut and fresh ginger to make them.  Professor was all aglow because he dazzling and delighting many women throughout the store as his wife waited up at the front of the store for a half hour.  I saw him on the produce aisle with a circle of women around him as he instructed them on the purchasing of good fresh coconut.  He tried to bluff me and tell me that a little old man in a wheel chair was there asking the questions...my eyesight isn't that bad...there weren't any men there.

My review of his "ginger buns", they were okay, not sweet enough for my taste but my mom really liked them.  She said they were like scones. 

 I had enough of the cheap Teflon pans I bought 10 months ago.  I didn't like that we were eating Teflon that chipped off during cooking or cleaning.  Not only that but they rusted if they were put away a bit wet.  Which lead to the ruination of several of my kitchen towels which the Professor used to oil and wipe out the pans when they came from the cupboard.  So I bought a cheap set of stainless steel pans.  They had metal handles and I made handle covers out of a terry cloth towel I bought cheaply at the Thrift Shop.  Okay, catch your breath, that actually IS a table cloth covering the dining room table!

Yes gentle readers, I broke out my sewing machine!  Now pick up your jaw off the floor...I have been stitching also! I have actually stitched more then the picture reflects...amazing aren't I!

So at the Thrift Shop I found this 80's style necklace with pretty pastel colored beads.  Now I don't like it as a necklace but I am going to restring as a couple of stretchy bracelets.  The earrings are sweet and I really like them.  I wore them to work already.  I thought they could also be used as charms in a needlework piece.  The necklace was $2.50 and the earrings $1.50.

April was a little miffed with me because I hadn't taken a picture of her lately, let alone share it with her ardent admirers on the blog.  She wants you to know she has lost a lot of weight and she is looking very svelte these days.

And last but not least.... I came home from work yesterday to a very excited Professor.  He dragged me into the Happy Room to show me he had "discovered" that my web cam program puts special effects into the pictures it takes.  I was horrified to discover, the man I married is a 100% poser!  Yes gangsta poser Professor.  Please I beg of you, don't spread my shame around!

Well my dearest kindred readers, that is about all from my side of the Thicket. So until we visit again may your spring be lovely and your life blessed!

Is anything special anymore?

It is a gorgeous spring day in the Thicket today.  The sun is shining brightly and there is a wind out of the south and the skies are just as blue as can be.

I guess with the advent of a pretty clean Happy Room, I would rather be stitching then fussing with my computer and blog.  I have done some stitching.  I am working on a Mill Hill kit with chickie poohs on it.  I don't recall the name and I don't want to get up or I will be distracted and not come back and sit down and tell my ever faithful readers that life is good here in the Lilac Thicket.

For a change I am on the Professor's $hit Li$t, it is usually the other way around.  I was trying to pay the water bill on line this morning and the city changed the damn website where one must register to pay the pill, I mean bill.  Of course with the passwords now you have to have a capital letter, a number, a special character, turn around twice, fart and then spit into the wind before the city feels your password is secure enough.  I mean really folks, someone may what...hack my password and pay my bill?  Oh my password is "2731" readers, someone please go pay my bill! 

Sorry I got off on one of my tangents, like that is anything new.  Well in wanders the Professor with a food storage container and lid and wants to know why it won't fit.  First of all it didn't fit last night when you asked me and I told you we have 2 different brands of containers and lids are not interchangable.  That answer has NOT changed since last night and Jimini Crickets don't interrupt me while I am fighting with the damn City Water Department web site so I can pay them money.  Well...that miffed the Professor that I didn't stop what I was doing and run to rummage around in the cabinet HE organized to find a damn different color round plastic lid.   Then I get a snotty retort with a distinctly Carribean accent which I didn't understand...okay sweetheart, I know I have a hearing problem because I can't understand your mumbles half the time.  That hearing problem also extends to all of my family and friends, because they have a hard time too!

So how is your life my kindred spirits?

I asked Professor if he still wanted to Thrift Shop with me today.  Nope, he didn't...great I think!  So the thrift shop did hold some treasures, cross stitch patterns and magazines, some macrame leaflets, a cool necklace I want to string into bracelets, some nice pillow cases, a couple of cool hand crocheted hot pads and a butterfly stained glass hanger for the window. 

For lunch McDonalds, a chicken sandwich and chocolate shake and the park.  I sat and watched squirrel run up and down the tree countless times with a mouth stuffed with leaves for it's impending baby.  I thought that was really the sweet part of spring, newness, specialness.  The tulip trees are blooming and the Bradford pears are starting to bloom too.  I watched some robins patiently listening for worms and I contemplated how nothing seems to be special anymore.  Nothing special, nothing sacred.  I remember when we were little and eating out was really special.  I only remember a couple of times doing it.  I remember when a neighbor would get a new car and we all would go and press out noses against the windows to see the pristine interior and look at our reflections in the shiny wax finish.  Holidays were magical and there was always something special Mom did for us on those days.  Everyone dressed up to fly on a plane or go to church.  Only tough old military men had tatoos and you gave wide berth to divorced women because they were "hot to trot", whatever that meant.  Movie stars were glamourous and behaved themselves.  Movies were magical and always had a happy ending.  What happened to us?  I miss those days.  I cringe at all the vulgarity of today, the selfishness, the ugliness.  I see nothing but disrespect.  I see contrived tv shows with badly mannered people pass as entertainment.  I see our world has lost it's dreams and idealism.  I am glad I did get to live in a world, for a short time, a world filled with possibilities and specialness.