Arrrgh!!!

"April showers bring May flowers..." We had absolutely gorgeous weather for the past week, and I was chained to my office desk or running errands. I desperately wanted to get out and play in the gardens, and kept promising myself that I'd get there this morning. It's chilly today, and as the sun comes up, we're between showers. There are thunderstorms forecast for this afternoon. I may still get a little time in the garden before the storms slide in. I'm glad for the rain. We've been in drought for more than a year, and were 13 inches short on precipitation by last month. You can feel the plants and shrubs and trees soaking up the rain.

The herons and egrets are back. About three weeks ago, I was in the car with Nan. She was driving and I started shouting about the heron that was flying across our path. She calmly pointed out the four by the side of the road that I had missed. On Tuesday, Elegante Mother smugly announced that she had seen an egret. I was driving and couldn't stop to look, but last night I saw an egret sitting in the corn field to the east of us, and they have returned to the nesting preserve outside of Plainfield. We're relieved to see that they made it through the winter following the damage from Katrina.

Dear Husband has been varnishing. While the start of boating season in the Chicago harbors is May 13, I've become a boat widow already. There's tons of work to prepare a sailboat for the season and he works away at it every day. Weather needs to be dry to varnish, so Mother Nature hasn't been on his side this spring.

Our branch of the family which lives in Australia is returning home today. They've been visiting for about ten days, sharing Easter with us, and checking out universities. The twins will be going off to school next fall, and it's time to make the decision on where it will be. It's a great idea to see the university before you commit yourself to it.

I have a new long term quilt project started. In one of my quilt magazines, a designer did a "Hands" quilt in black and white. My oldest sister did a variation of that quilt about 25 years ago, and I have thought for some time that I wanted to update her quilt with all the new hands that had come along. Instead, I'm going to use the technique from this article to fuse amber batik hand prints onto darker batik back-rounds. So, yesterday, I collected the hand prints of the Australian family. This particular technique gives you two hand prints, the positive hand shape, and the negative (the area left when you cut the hand print out of the square). I'll have roughly 120 blocks once I have everybody's hand prints, so I'm going to make one large quilt, and then five wall hangings, one for each of my siblings. This project will go on forever, so don't be surprised to see me comment (cuss) about it, a lot more.

Wednesday morning, I went to a TOPS meeting. If you have always been slender you may not know that TOPS stands for Take Off Pounds Sensibly. I'm going to join this group next Wednesday. I hope not to talk a lot about weight loss as I try to do this, but there's bound to be a few posts. I can think of one I want to do today about changing eating habits. So....if that sort of stuff bores you, please just skip right on by.

Taxes are done! Personal financials for the year are done! Info for the revocable trusts has been gathered! The emergency information binder is coming along nicely! I haven't gotten to all my big projects before gardening season opened, but I've gotten the most pressing things done. There's hope that I'll see my desktop once again, and if we get rain in the summer, I'll be working in the basement. I NEED to take care of the clutter, and I NEED to start parting with things that we no longer use. I'll feel better once things are organized.

So.....I hope you are all having a wonderful spring, and that you've had the chance to either garden, or be out where plants are blooming. Enjoy the warmer weather coming our way. Open your house and let the breezes in (everyone except Bogie, that is......we don't want you to freeze, hon!).

Happy weekend!