“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!

Short Shorts
No, not the kind we wear. It

My chives are growing!
And where there are chives, I bet there are crocus. I’ll have to go look.
We had a couple days of rain, and the lawn is greening, and perennial weeds are perking up. We have crocus and Darwin tulips that will bloom early. I’ll try to get pictures of them this year. The daffodils are ringed around the front gardens. I think I’ve divided them often enough to have some in every garden.
The iris will start up soon, but we won’t see any blooms from them until mid-May, and the peonies will follow in late May or early June.
I love the anticipation of this time of year. I love the warming of the temperatures, but the still crisp days. It’s the best time to garden.
We have a plaque that says “To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow.”
There’s hope!

This is what the worst section of our roof looked like on the day the roofers were scheduled to begin re-roofing our house. These shingles are only 16 years old, but on the South elevation over the garage and mudroom they were crumbling to nothing.
We’ve chosen to replace them with 50 year guaranteed architectural shingles that should withstand the wind and sun better. This roof has splashes of red and green in it that I’ll miss, but I’m glad to know that we have a sound roof over our heads.

This is the North side of the house. The roof is just about stripped, and ready for the black paper to be laid. It took a day and a half to remove the shingles Dear Husband and I so laboriously put up. The white framed window is the bay window over my kitchen sink.

The shingles are going up fast and furious. A storm is coming in. Scattered severe thunderstorms are predicted to start in just a couple of hours. When Dear Husband and I did the roof 16 years ago, it took us almost four months to do what they did in four and a half hours. Aren’t pneumatic hammers amazing??

My word, it’s cold! When I got up this morning it was just 16 degrees outside, and right now, it feels about sixteen next to these windows!
For Elegante Mother, we have the temperature set at 72 degrees. If she didn’t live with us, the temperature would be at 68 during the day and 65 or so at night. I’m usually too warm, and would willingly lower the thermostat for the winter, but Elegante Mother is going to be 89 on December 7th, and she tends to look blue if we turn the heat down too far.
I’ve been trying to get her to get up and move around, but she doesn’t seem to believe that being active will keep her warm. I have the perfect idea for this afternoon, though. I’m going to bring the box of ornaments up from the basement, and have her work at decorating her Christmas tree.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…..

Have you ever had one of those days when everything looks fine on paper, but the reality misses the mark by a mile??
That would describe today.

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Herons and Egrets
We

It seems this is the week for physical therapy for our household. Today, Elegant Mother was visited by a physical therapist, who assessed her strength and gave her a number of exercises to work on. The therapist will return the middle of next week to check on EM, to see if she has any questions.
We’ve been concerned about the amount of time she’s spending in her chair, and the fact that she’s missed three weeks of exercise class. It’s important that she not loose the ability to get up and move around and go places, so I’m glad the therapist has been here. Now I get to nag EM about exercise, and cranberry juice, and walking, and eating more!

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