Crazy Pants

That's what this spring is so far.  Crazy pants.

See that header photo?  That's a tulip tree.  Here where I live in northern Colorado.  Where I have never ever ever in my long legged life seen a tulip tree in bloom in these parts.

Ever.  And when I saw this one, I drove around the block to make sure of what I was seeing.

Then went back the next afternoon with the fancy smancy camera to get a photo.  Because it will probably be another 15 years before I see it bloom again.

Seriously, all the flowering trees are bursting into bloom.  Not budding, but blooming.  It was mid-May a couple years ago when I made the Guy drive me around on a Saturday morning taking photos of the lovely trees in our fair burg.

Crocus

I was outside this week more than usual.  It was pleasant and warmish for the season.

I spied a crocus about ready to bloom! Need I say more?

But I will anyway.

I planned to remember to take a photo!  The promise of Spring.  A blog post in a week lacking of time for posting!

Then the wind blew.  Then the rainy snow came.

I don't know what happened to the bloom.  I never saw it.

I know the chill weather is not a done deal, but there was a promise in that bud!  And maybe the bloom.  That I never saw...

Spring Cleaning, the Yard

Being a glorious and splendid day on Sunday, I spent just a wee bit of time after the birthday barbeque in the yard. I could not help myself. I know. I KNOW! It's early. A full four weeks before the last average frost! I do know all that, but I just couldn't not do it. Just one corner. And maybe a bit more.

Then just a bit more on Monday. (Fortunately, Tuesday we were all involved with car-dealing or more would have been cleared...)

What could it hurt....

Nothing this week.  It's has been All. Spring! All The Time.  Stuff is growing by leaps and bounds.

Last week.

This week!

Last week...

This week!

(from seeds an old friend brought to me from Alaska...)

More...

And more...

It's heady stuff, and it's easy for me to be overcome with the whiff of fresh earth and chlorophyll.We might just have lilacs this year...(fingers crossed!)

Spring!

Last weekend we had alot of snow slushy rainy stuff puddling up all over the place and getting in my shoes whenever I went out.

This week...high 70's, low 80's.

I have one word to say to that.

Green!  I think if I had something other to do that keep my head above water at my new old job, I would be out watching stuff grow, because I swear I could see it.

One of the things about where I am now working is the close accessibility to a great walking trail, which I frequented often during the times of trial and despair during the dee-vorce.  And again, during the courtship of Wonderful Guy and Best Dog Ever.

When I feel like I have things a bit under control, a bit more under control, I am so back there!

Unfortunately, it does not look like we will be enjoying lilacs this year.

I did have a nifty new laptop sitting in my cube after some training today!

Schweet!  I am back online!

More Spring Doings

Yesterday I changed the bedroom to it's spring dress.

I know. I really can't believe it myself, but it's true. My bedroom has two sets of outfits, and I am pretty rigorous in my switching out of them in the fall and the spring.

I may be channeling Martha Stewart just a little.

Window swag, area rug, dust ruffle, quilt, and pillows in shams, all go from russets, browns, and blues, to lilacs, greens and ecrus. I don't know that I have ever really used the word ecru in a sentence. Or russet. Except with potato. And maybe not even then.

I do have more to say about these particular pillow shams. They are recycled from tied quilts that Deeply Missed and Dearest Sisters made for the Daughters one Christmas. Used well and well loved, I untied and ripped out the stitching. I quilted in a cross-hatch pattern and, following and adapting a pattern from the internet, I made the shams. I like that I have re-used them.

Anyway. Best Dog Ever sleeps next to the bed, and Phoebe, the cat, stays safe from the Grand-Pup and the pink medicine and many other scary things under the bed. Both of these things lead to a great amount of pet hair on the dust ruffle. A dust ruffle is a fearsome thing to iron after washing.

No more. This past winter, Wonderful Guy and I bought the wondrous, even magical!, steamer. He was all about clothes! No more ironing! I was thinking knitting and blocking...and dust ruffles and window swags and table clothes...and clothes, too, but I have my priorities.

Yesterday the dust ruffle was de-wrinkled in short order, and our boudoir is ready for the season in it's spring finery.

My mother would probably just choke. Except for the pillow shams.

Oh, the feeling!

Look what greeted me when I came home from work today. I didn't even know there was a bud! This guy is my earliest bloomer, and the name eludes me. Perhaps Dearest Sister will recognize the little fellow and recall it's moniker.

Hand for scale....

He is really an itty bitty one, my smallest, in fact, and was transplanted from a less desirable area last fall. Blooms are generally unexpected the first year after transplanting, so this is a real gift. Especially because it is my first iris bloom of the year! I. Am. So. Excited!

And these ladies have on their best perfume. The fragrance of hyacinths is the smell of spring for me. The neighbors have to pardon me as I get down to enjoy these beauties.

Oh, I know where I live....I know we will probably have more freezing temps! I think it makes it all the sweeter.

TGIF

So glad it’s Friday. It’s been an unusual week for me, and I prefer my quietude and routine!

That’s ironic.

Not so long ago, my life was crazy wild and too, too busy. And not so much in a good way. I spent all my time and energy doing everything I thought I needed to for everyone else, and I didn’t know it should be any other way. Some of it I needed to do as a mother, and I don’t regret nor resent those efforts. I suppose some of it was necessary as a wife, too. I no doubt overdid some in that wifely role. As a minister’s wife, I always claimed I defined that role for myself (very liberated!), and took on only what I choose for myself to do. Unfortunately, I had no healthy boundaries, and that leads to unhealthy choices. So mother of 3 daughters, plus working full time, plus doing the minister’s wife thing, plus being a wife the only way I knew added up to no time for me, except for an occasional soak in the tub, behind a closed door. Then again, I didn’t know there was suppose to time for me. I felt guilty about taking time for me. I was all about giving myself and time and energy to others. Until there was nothing left, except resentment and anger when no one seemed to appreciate my sacrifices.

Not anymore. I choose what I do, then I do it gladly. Like helping the Only Step-Son. Or taking food to the recovering Middle Daughter tonight! Or the Youngest Daughter with her sewing. And I take time for myself without guilt (mostly!). No more over committing. When I took a position on a service board, I gave up hand bells. Would have been easy to be involved in both, but I knew where that would lead me. This is one lesson I have learned.

So we are closing on the end of January. It has been bitter cold this past week, and even though this weekend will be unseasonably warm, the wind will blow. It won’t be enjoyable for me to be out. With the end of this month, then the short month of February, and a trip scheduled for the end, March will soon be here, and March is almost spring! (in a snowy kind of a high altitude way.) I might be rushing time, but I am getting cabin fever, itching to garden, itching to hike, itching to ride my bike.