"...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!