Officially Spring

Although it's felt like spring around here for a few weeks, the calendar tells me that spring began yesterday. People often complain that Florida has no seasons, however, I beg to differ. We do have hot, and not so-hot weather, sort of a greater and lesser summer, however we definitely do have an official spring with no humidity to speak of which is a huge blessing. There are birds everywhere, re: my last post, but the ones we like the most are the cardinals. Saturday afternoon Bruce called out telling me a cardinal was perched on the bird feeder. The picture I took through the window wasn't much. After Bruce turned on the sprinklers, I went outside, stalking them, hoping to get something cheerful.

This little guy had the best time cooling off in the sprinklers. Normally they go off at 2 in the morning, thus we've never seen them flying through the spraying water. I'd like to say we turned it on for that purpose, however, we were actually checking to see that nothing broke during the tree mess!

If you've had any access to news lately, you know all about the super moon Saturday night. Bruce took the kayak out fishing Saturday evening, but not before he discovered that what appears to be the work of squirrels on his kayak rim. All we can figure is that they gnawed at the edge, leaving it very rough to say the least. Using a rasp he was able to smooth it out somewhat, and then he went down to the lake. Baxter and I fooled around at the house, then took a walk down there to see what we could see.

Baxter is sporting his latest kerchief after his grooming on Friday. He looks good in blue doesn't he? Seriously, I leave it on for a few days, and only a few days. At the market I see dogs with all manner of "clothing" which often leaves me speechless. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the moon rose. I first glimpsed it down the street and was it ever bright and orangey. I am no good at moon shots, but I took through the trees out front:

This is the kind of subject which requires technical skill, of which I'm sorely lacking. After it was all said and done, I'm not sure any of us would have really noticed much difference without the news stories hyping the event. The lunar eclipse, on the other hand, was really something!

Yesterday the market was slower than it has been, probably because half the city was at the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival. Which reminds me, the best in show winner was about a booth away from me at Baldwin Park. Coincidentally, according to Friday's newspaper, the winner from last year was the painter across from me at the Ocala show. (Ocala ) By the way, that prize is worth $10,000!

Another thing I see with much greater frequency than I'd like is young people sporting tatoos. Don't get me going on this one because I'll never stop! Here's a new one I've yet to see heretofore:

While showing this to Bruce, I enlarged it a bit, noticing only then that the girl doesn't shave under her arms. Could this be a new trend I've not heard about? Please say no.

On the other hand, it may have been my horrible cold sore that scared customers away yesterday. Believe me, it's hard to look at.

Jonathan is thrilled with this story http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/sports/ncaabasketball/21irish.html right about now. Ironically, the Seminoles came to Chicago after he left!

Still looking for something special with this damn tulip! The color is just so spectacular it seems a shame to waste it. I did learn through this process that if you refrigerate your tulip it will close back up and stay fresh. Don't say you've never learned anything from this space in cyberworld.

I'm so disappointed right about now. While working on this, an email came through from Olga, our CPA, and it looks like this year will be no different from any other. $3,000 tax liability. Thunderstruck is more like it. :-(