I'm Home!

There's no place like home.

World Time

Trader Joe's

Why can't we get one of these in Utah?

A Dreary Travel Day

Traveling for work.

Packed and ready to go...

Mountain Chickadee

This little guy keeps coming up to the windows as if he wants in. I'm amazed that he posed for this photo.

Music to my ears...

Someone who loves me bought me an early Mother's Day gift so that I would have music with me on my upcoming travel excursion. I love the purple-ness.

A Perfect World

Happy Earth Day!

I am so infatuated with my garden, I can't find anything more beautiful and interesting to photograph.

Peach Blossoms

Spring!

Pedicures!

Whenever my daughter comes to visit, we go to lunch and then get pedicures. One of my most favorite things in life.

The Story of the Purple (Blue) Hyacinths

My sister died last fall from complications due to ALS. At the funeral service, I placed a basket of purple hyacinth bulbs in the lobby of the mortuary with a note on each one asking the recipient to plant the bulb in the fall and remember my sister in the spring. When it was over there were three bulbs left and I planted them in my garden. This is a picture of one of them.

Purple was her favorite color and we all wore purple on the day that we honored her life.

One early morning last week when I was leaving for work, I noticed the hyacinths peeking out from beneath the snow. On the way into work, the song "Forever Young" by Rod Stewart began playing on the car radio. We played that song at my sister's funeral.

I definitely felt her presence that morning and it made me happy.

Rebirth

My Hosta garden is back!

Africian Violets (again)

See my post on April 7th to see how far they've come!

It Snowed on Tax Day

Taxes are due today; thankfully I got mine in early this year.

These are hyacinths in my front yard. It has snowed all day today and the flakes were huge. Not much stuck to the ground, except up near the mountains by our house. We had at least two inches all the way around, but a white lawn doesn't make for a very interesting picture. The only reason you don't see more white in this picture is because my dryer vent is nearby and the heat melted the snow.

I will tell you a story about the purple hyacinth soon.

A Dreary Day

This is the view from of my living room window. Blah...

Oh no! We forgot one!

Happy Easter

Easter means different things to different people. For Christians, Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb after being buried for three days.

Interestingly, Easter corresponds to the coming of Spring. 

The name Easter itself is widely believed to be derived from Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility.  Her festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox.  Some of the traditions associated with the festival are the Easter rabbit, a symbol of fertility, and in colored easter eggs, originally painted with bright colors to represent spring.

Another name for Easter is Pasch, which comes from Pesach (Passover), a Jewish celebration which also takes place at around the same time of the year.

There is also the Germanic goddess Eostre, whose feast was historically held on the first full moon after the vernal equinox. On this date, she was said to mate with the solar god and conceive a child that would be born 9 months later on the winter solstice. She was symbolized by a rabbit and an egg, representing fertility and the possibility for new life.

Coloring Eggs

The march of the egg people.

My New Garden

Someone who loves me gave me this gift on no particular occasion. I can't wait until Mother's Day when it's safe to plant. If this turns out the way I envision, I will certainly have more pictures this summer.

Tacos for Dinner

This is the plate of someone who loves a little taco with their tomatoes - me!

What to do in a disaster? Crochet!

Whatever faults Maria D'Antuono may have, wasting time is not among them.

The 98-year-old villager, from Tempera, near L'Aquila, yesterday became one of the latest survivors to be dragged from the rubble left by Monday's devastating earthquake in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. For 30 interminable hours, she lay below the ruins of her house, a few miles from the epicentre.

So what did she do to while away the time, not knowing whether she would live or die as rescue workers dug towards her? The answer, it seems, was "crochet".

Read the rest of the article here...

Crazy Shortcut Quilts

I've been looking through this book of beautiful quilts contemplating trying my hand at making one. I've always loved quilts of all kinds, but never have the time to devote to quilting. This method is one I'd love to try.

I've been to one of the co-authors' blogs and found links to even more awesome quilts.

African Violets

My African Violet is finally blooming again. My mom can grow them amazingly well, but my success is intermittent. I will try to take a better picture (without flash) when I get more blooms.

Moonstruck

A New Project

I bought this beautiful yarn today, Caron Simply Soft Eco. Every 10 skeins contain six recycled plastic bottles. I think that is so cool. I'm helping to save the planet by crocheting ;^). I'm planning to make this for someone who loves african violets and crochet.

Cuddliness

Union Station

We took our out-of-town guests to Union Station in Ogden today and visited the museums (after eating at Union Grill; yummm).

The sign to the left in this photo says "You can't get anywhere without coming to Ogden." That was true when rail travel was the primary mode of transportation and Ogden was a railroad town.

Sunny Reflections