"...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.

Sunday's Spring Sojourn

When I go to work in the mornings now, the sun is starting to rise in the east.  The birds are singing, I hear robins and cardinals and chickadees.  At work I hear the Canadian Snow geese across the street in the pond.  It is all the tell tale signs of spring.  I love the morning sun rises, God reminding us of the beauty in each day.

From my vista at work I can see the sun pop up over the horizon changing everything to a golden world.  I love it. 

My happy room has a large lovely window that faces the east and as the sun rises it fills the room with great light to stitch by or even blog by.  Rose and April are outside and I can watch them perform their duties.  I can watch the robins and sparrows hunt for their breakfast and soon I will hear the woodpeckers drumming out their territory on my rain gutters.  I wonder if robins will nest in the crook of the down spout like last year. 

So you can see this is a perfect spot for me to settle in to for stitching.  One draw back is the Professor likes to prowl up and down the hall checking out what I am doing.  I think it really bothers him that that he doesn't have a spot in here to hang out.  He does like to follow me from room to room. 

Do you remember this little beauty?  It is the Alessandra Adelaide stitch along from 2010 and it is sitting in here and I am itching to get started on it...as soon as I figure out where I left off.

We have an appointment at 1:30 and I wish I could cancel but it is something pretty important so I can't. I want to cozy into the house and I don't think it is going to be warm enough to throw open a window, but I will take the 57° high they are predicting.

I have a shameful secret...I found a ton of unfinished projects in excavating the happy room.  I will have to take pictures of them and post them here.  You know when you buy stuff and then it gets "lost", oh my gosh I have found my lost stuff and I think I have found yours too!

Off I go to greet the rest of my day and enjoy the secret folds here in the Lilac Thicket.  God Bless Us Everyone.

Life in the Lilac Lane

Oh happy day my loveliest readers.  I have been oh so busy and that last thing that I have wanted to do is stop and blog.  Not that I don't want to regale you with tales of the Lilac Thicket but when I get in the mood I need to keep going.  If I stop, I lose my mojo! 



 We had our first shovelable snow Sunday the 12th into the 13th and the Carribean Prince just couldn't wait to get his hands on the shovel. 

Valentine's Day I was so envious of all the ladies at work with beautiful vases of roses.  I got home to a from scratch sponge cake, made and decorated with more love and thought then any vase of flowers ever bought and sent.  In fact this cake was the second one the Professor made.  The first didn't come out and he had to take a cold walk up to the grocery for more flour and eggs.  My thought now is, my delicious cake was more beautiful then any bunch of old flowers.  The Professor made this cake from memories of his mother making it back in Guyana, so that makes it more spectacular, don't you think?

This was the gift my dearest beloved received from his loving and gentle wife.  Yes it is a 50" Zenith plasma television.  Oh it is huge, it didn't look that big in the Sears!  The Professor is in love...with the t.v. not me!  When we went to the Thrift Shop yesterday we found the television stand for $7.50!  (Have you priced tv stands at WalMart and Sear?  OMG) It was half price, as was everything in the store.  It is great to see movies in high definition.  Maybe someday the Prince will love ME as much as the television.

 My happy room is coming right along.  We put the old kitchen table in under the window.  We dressed the window with some sweet blue flocked curtains that my mom gave us.  The ironing board was taken down after 8 years of permanent residence standing vigil under the window with a ton, and I do mean a ton, of crap stacked on top of it.

  The book shelves have been somewhat organized by the Professor, and dusted.  I have a several clear plastic storage containers and had everything sorted and up off the floor.

 I came home from work on Saturday to a husband meeting me at the door "you caught me".  My domestic God, the Professor sorted a bunch of stuff all in a heap all over the floor.  Can you spell "frustrated"?  I wanted to commit Professor-cide!   

 So after my Mother bailed me out of jail yesterday,  I came home and made a Mennonite recipe for Macaroni and Cheese.  I was disappointed because it wasn't cheesy enough for me.  But it hit the spot with baked BBQ chicken. 

That is the little bit of news going on here in my Lilac Thicket.  Thank you a lot for missing me.  Off I go to eat myself some dinner.  God Bless Us Everyone!

Help...there's a plant in the dog dish!

A simple update for my gentle readers, life is wonderful here in the cold, cloistered confines of the Lilac Thicket.  We are supposed to get some snow tonight, I suppose Old Man Winter is trying to remind us here that it IS winter.  I mean really friends...no snow in winter in Missouri...inconceivable!

The news on the Happy Room front is good.  We are now in the midst of arranging and organizing.  Hooray!  I am anxious to sit down with needle and thread and have a go at a neglected craft.

The Professor is in the midst of cleaning.  He wanted a plant, I am not really sure he is ready for the responsibility of such a living organism.  He promised HE would take care of it.  So I relented and I got him some spiky leaved thing that should grow into a tree.  When I gave it to him he asked "where should I put it"?  Well I then I started second guessing myself about the wisdom of allowing him the custodial rights over the plant. 

The victim is now sitting in a dog bowl on a small plant stand in front of the window.

I had to stop for a moment, the Professor was using a plastic pancake turner scrape the gunk out from under the burners.  Yuck, and then we use it on our food?  Makes me wonder what goes on when I am not home.  On the other hand, maybe it's best I don't know.

I am going to go to a baby shower here in a couple of hours.  My mother knitted a lovely white blanket with the softest yarn.  I forgot to get a pic for the blog, and I have it wrapped already.  I will try to get one at the shower.

I am trying to get the Professor to go to the shower with me, other guys are going.  So I bribed him, we can go to see the movie he wants to see, something like "Red Rear" or something like that.  It's the one about Tuskegee Airmen. Then we can go to Red Lobster.

Sorry, I almost had a heart attack, I thought the Professor was using Windex to clean off the top of my wooden clock that Brother 2 made us out of wonderful walnut.

I got I lovely Valentine card from my husband in the mail.  It will be our first Valentine's Day together.  We actually met 2/17/11, so we haven't known each other a year yet.

It's SO-O-O-O pink!

Oh my gentlest of readers, I'm in the pink and I hope my new blog design reflects that!  Since I officially turned 55 last week, I thought I would freshen up my life, like it could get any better then it was.  Well the answer to that is YES!  I was asked to work a special project at work. I was thrilled to be asked and even more thrilled to say yes.  So 4 out of my 5 work days, I will be working with another department within the call center.  I will be working on a project which will benefit the entire enterprise.  I will be learning so much more and who knows where this will ultimately lead me at CVS/Caremark.  God has blessed me beyond my wildest imagination.

Our mandatory overtime is almost at an end, which is terrific.  I have enjoyed more money in my pay but I love my time in my Thicket and I have been so tired.

The Professor is in taking a nap.  I know our late night, watching the Mizzou Tigers take a piece of out of some horrid little red and blue fowl's tail.  Go my #4 rated University of Missouri. 

I have heard something about a SuperBowl which has NO meaning in the Lilac Thicket because of our Border War game last night. 

So for my birthday I went to the Thrift Shop and found me a really nice SAK purse for $3.50 and a few other little chachkas.  Then we went and saw "A Joyful Noise" which we both loved.  I also was excited because my Caribbean Prince held my hand through out the whole movie (a first in my life).  We then went over to Mom's and the family was there.  We ate Popeye's chicken and had a lovely cake, decorated with cross stitch "X"es and flowers.  It was good, good, good. 

Then there were lovely presents.  I got a new pair of pants, a set of cookie sheets, a lovely blue blouse, a blue cotton jersey jacket,

3 pairs of wonderful earrings (hand made by my SIL)

and a gift certificate for my  needlework shop.  My Professor bought and sent me the prettiest card. 

So birthday 55 was the best one I have ever had.

I did purchase some stash, 2 Just Nan's Snowflower and Ice Blossom.  My Happy Room isn't done yet but there is definite progress.

I am getting ready for Valentine's Day.  Professor's favorite magazine is Penthouse Reader's Digest, so I purchased a subscription for 2 years and I want to get him some Hershey's Kisses.  Plus for the past 4 days I have been penning reasons I love him, I want to have 101 reasons. 

Then I will type them up and print them off instead of purchasing a card.  I am up to 72 reasons and the pretty pink trim covers a couple of private reasons which I won't share.  Mom was pretty impressed with my offerings when she asked me what I was getting him for VD!

So life is wonderful here in the cockles of the Lilac Thicket and I will close with a picture of the two most important people in my life.  My Caribbean Prince and my marvelous mother.  God Bless Us Everyone.