Signs of Spring

Most people around these parts would agree that it has been a cold winter and those same folks are tiring of it, so having signs of Spring is such a relief. Not that winter is over yet, but seeing new life on bare branches does wonders for a person's spirit. The only thing I dislike about winter is having to wear pants and a bunch of clothes. So many decisions to make about what to wear! Plus, did I tell you how I brought only one of two different brown boots?   How I did that is a real mystery. It is still cold by Florida standards, but warmer weather is on the way, or so we hope! 

So I am loving my new kitchen window which was not pictured very well befor,e but now it is. Obviously, this is not a staged photo because you can tell real life is going on.

Since I took the photo above, at Bruce's suggestion I have removed the middle curtains and actually I am soon going to be making different ones, although I love the fabric, I do want to be able to cover the window in the event that the afternoon sun is too bright. As they are made they only cover one half of the window. 

Serendipity folks! I had just picked up some cute red and white fabric for a song at the thrift store in Andrews, so that is coming up next. For now, I am working on the quilt when I can, and have one quarter of it quilted to date. I've decided it reminds me of butterscotch. 

As you have come to expect, projects, projects and more projects!! Since we arrived Bruce has really disliked our dresser. While functional and well-built, the style is not really ours, but we are grateful to have it so this isn't a complaint. More a style choice if you will. So one day last week Bruce got to work on freeing the mirror from the hutch part.

What you are looking at is a big hutch that had outlived its usefulness. Before you begin to wonder why we don't just get a new dresser, I've got an answer for you. Getting furniture up the staircase is next to impossible, which I think is why they were eager to leave the furniture for us! He did it!! 

Now there is actually room on top of the dresser whereas before that hutch took up almost all of the space. It can't be overstated how grateful I am to have a husband that can tackle most any project. 

Here is what happened to the dresser parts. It has been too chilly and too dark for us to sit by a fire until Saturday afternoon when it was pleasant.  Two days later a fire ban has been put in effect so we just made it.

Thinking about the dark, I guess that is one thing folks dislike about winter, not enough light. I just saw the calendar and realized DST is this weekend. I'm not a big fan, are you? I was just getting used to the earlier sunrise which I welcome. 

Oh well, in our little town a round- about is going in and wow, folks are not happy. The only thing I am bothered about is the construction is going to prevent them from planting all of the beautiful downtown flowers. Boo hoo!

Switching gears for a moment, here is Mr. Bright Eyes, aka Christian, at three months! 

Both Fallon and Bill have been great at keeping us abreast of his development and we could not be any happier for them as they celebrated seven years of marriage yesterday with an adorable new family member. 

So let's have a look at those signs of spring that the title refers to, shall we?

Look at these cute little flowers by the front steps!! From a mass of ragged looking fronds, this is emerging.

Walking around the block I spotted some color in Jason's yard and discovered a gorgeous plant that I learned is called a Lenten Rose. How fitting!

Take a closer look at the bloom, just as the bright sun landed on the plant.

With the lengthening days, and tiny bit warmer weather, the kids are once again out playing.

On this day, the clouds appeared as if suspended in the air.

Most all of the trees are still leafless, but in the park there are a few that are beginning to bud. This House Finch is glad to have something to eat.

Living with seasons has been a dream of mine ever since our year in Vancouver, so I am especially grateful to have the support of our family to make this dream come true. 

I do so love seeing the bluebirds!

Another project is underway downstairs so Mr,. and not Mrs,. is involved. Months ago we acquired an old chair from the house that was torn down adjacent to the church. Actually David had it first, but Randy said, "not on your life! We have no room!" So it has been on our front porch ever since. One of the warm afternoons last week,  Bruce laid down on the porch floor in the sunshine for a little nap and when he woke up he decided it was time to tackle the chair. 

Unbeknownst to us, David was nearby, so when he received my text about Bruce beginning to work on the chair, he came right over for, as he called it, "the big reveal." His knowledge of arts and crafts furniture far exceeds ours so it was good to have him here. He was most eager to know if it was a Stickley chair. (it is not). The chair had been painted and a padded back added. First Bruce took the seat out and what happened next was pretty neat. Over a hundred years in the life of this chair,  taste changed as was evidenced by the number of fabric covers he uncovered!

Not one, not two, not even three but five covers!! Then came the original leather seat cover!

What Bruce learned from David is that using a heat gun would be the most efficient way to remove the paint so with Lowes only blocks away, nothing was stopping Bruce now. Using a heat gun had a learning curve, but in no time, he most definitely had the hang of it.

Note the original slats that were uncovered once the back was removed.

And now it is ready for the rockers that were removed at some point.

He's made a template for a rocker which will probably be in use later today after he returns from his Big Brother stint at the local middle school. I will keep you posted.

Saturday on our way to Cobby and Diane's house we came across something that warmed our hearts.

What pray tell could you mean Gail? In the middle of a large intersection, on what we call "the four lane,", an entire pickup truck load of wood had escaped the bed, scattering on the road. No less than ten people stopped, pulling their trucks to the side of the road, and helped the stranger re-load his wood. Very nice indeed. 

We were riding with them to Crane Creek winery, planning to while away the warmish afternoon. While in their yard Bruce pointed out this bird.

By golly, it is one I had never before seen!! A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. They also told me they have Screech Owls on their property and you can count me jealous on that front.

We met Randy and David there.

It was so packed we found seating inside. 

It really turned out great because we could hear the live music through the open doors.

The vineyard looks like this now, but not for too much longer!

After months and months of bareness, color is so very welcome! 

Seeing stems or stalks coming up out of the ground is so magical, and to think it is only going to get better from here! 

your friend,

Gail

Kernel Panic Loop

 I don't know about you but when something has the word panic in its description, I know it cannot be good and my instincts were correct. Perhaps you have wondered when a new blog post would be coming out and if you were, so was I! 

Since last we met a lot has happened and most of it has been good, so let's start there, shall we? 

Here is something that most Floridians would like to avoid, however, these Floridians are kind of enjoying winter even though it has lasted much longer than last year.

Finally, after many attempts to do so, frost on the car windshield in a photograph. It's been harder to capture than one would imagine. Aren't they fascinating?

Once the windshield cleared we headed over to Andrews for some indoor pickleball. The drive had a lovely surprise in store for us.

Yes my friends, there was snow on the mountains, and that is because it snowed not one day, but two!

Unlike the previous snow, this was wet and did not hang around for long which is why I got out there and got some pictures while I could.

Honestly it took us by surprise, or at least me. Here is something to ponder; my phone showed no snow while it was actually snowing for several hours!! 

Zach and Michele across the street have been gone for weeks and weeks and have missed how lovely their home looks while it is snowing.

The first day it snowed was probably Wednesday, because on Tuesday I went to volunteer at the church and when I got home my darling husband was granting my wish for a windowsill! While I know that most people would find it weird that I longed for a windowsill, well, I am kind of weird. The shutters were quite nice, however, not only did it prevent me from having a windowsill, I realized once he removed them,

that with them being so close to me while I was at the sink, I felt a little hemmed in. Poor explanation but there it is nonetheless. One day soon those bare trees will flower and now I will be able to see them in their full glory. Once he removed the shutters, he thought the sill was too shallow so he built a new one and you would think it had always been there. I was really digging the new look.

Bruce, on the other hand thought it was a little too bare so on Thursday I made some cafe curtains with some fabric I already had in my baskets that Mary brought from Florida. Below is when I was sorting through them. As well, please note the new artwork over my sewing table. Framed vintage bird prints given to me by Mary Beth. The room continues to grow in coziness.

And here is a bit of the curtains with snow on the ground below.

I am using the same fabric for the binding of the new quilt which I am finally quilting after waiting for the batting to arrive from Amazon. While waiting. I kept it on the bed where it will reside.

After church yesterday Bruce helped me with the assembly using that huge floor space in our bedroom. Seriously, it is so big and I still call it a bowling alley!

Something else I made this last week was a little rope trivet, using rope from the flea market last year and Liberty fabric given to me by Matt and Tom, to use under the plant on the new bookcase. In other words, high and low end combined!

That red is SO good! I liked it so much so that I had Bruce paint the shelf above my sink with it. 

I think it was the day before it snowed that while rainy, the temperature was relatively comfortable,  so I went out back with the intention of picking up all of the magnolia pods that fall from a HUGE tree with four trunks that is a hundred years old.

I have no idea what made me think of it, but I am glad that I did because it made the job, while a bit tedious, very manageable. I picked up SEVEN buckets with my long kitchen tongs.

Following that task, I raked up countless snow shovels of spent bird seed. Countless! Mr. Bruce was working on the windowsill, so I thought I might contribute something. While doing so, I caught a peek of color from our neighbor Jason's yard, which turned out to be innumerable Crocus plants in various stages of bloom. Plu,s the field adjacent to us is filled with wild chives. 

I also spotted a stand of daffodils on the cusp of opening.

I need to check and see what damage the snow and VERY cold weather has done to these beauties! 

I completely forgot about Valentine's Day which was crazy cold because I went to play pickleball and after one game said I had had enough, what with the wind and the cold, no thanks! I could at least walk along the river.

Anyway, in honor of Carol, our deceased sister, I invited Hank over for dinner to enjoy his company on what would have been their maybe 45th wedding anniversary. He and Bruce are talking man stuff.

Can you believe no birds so far? Too good to be true! 

Our neighbor Sandy's pink magnolia tree, with buds I might add. It is sort of a Where's Waldo sort of photo, except the subject is birds.

Can you count them in the snow? Enlarge please!

How fun, right? 

No need to search for the bird in the one below of a female Spotted Towhee which only seems to appear when it snows. Actually, two came scavanging which thrilled me to no end, in part because they are rare, and in part because they are pretty. I noticed that the new quilt shares some of the same colors.

Last but not the least in the snow series is everyone's favorite.

According to most forecasts we are due for more snow in the next month, but only time will tell.

What the heck is the title referring to you might be thinking, and rightly so because it is not a term one hears every day. Actually, I hope to never hear of it again! For some time now my computer has been a bit challenging to use and while I won't describe it all, I will say that maybe it was Monday that it began shutting off of it's own accord. Plus there were very scary error messages in between shutting off. Doing some research on the iPad I learned the cause was what is called a kernel panic and in my case because it kept doing it, a kernel panic loop. Bruce took it to the local computer guy who basically said that I had way too many photographs on the hard drive and I needed to delete a bunch ASAP! Figuring out the megs and such, Bruce thought at least 12,000 would do it. 

Deleting photographs is right up there with some dreaded household task. I know that doing so when they are fresh is the answer, but I've never been able to operate that way. Nevertheless, if I wanted to continue blogging, and photographing for that matter, it was a job that needed doing. One thousand, two thousand, three and on I slogged until I was at over 6,000 in the trash bin, and it seemed as if the error messages had ceased. This scary message did not cease however, and eventually I had to concede this was not something to mess around with.

Along with the spinning beach ball, the above happened many times. Things actually degraded and as it now stands, the computer will not even open. I did my very best not to panic, knowing all those years of photographs were possibly in jeopardy. I do have two external hard drives which seemed promising, but still it was not an ideal situation. Thus on Saturday, Bruce drove us the ninety miles to the Costco in Woodstock, GA, a very northern suburb of Atlanta. Costco is ideal because they extend the Apple warranty for a year.

While it looks calm in this photograph, it was anything but during our time there. Oh my goodness, am I unaccustomed to crowds anymore. What a sissy, right? 

Aside from now being behind a new Mac, the best things about that trip were several things, including learning the drive there was not terrible as it is not too mountainous, and two, the cherry and apple danish we bought from the Costco bakery. Oh my gosh, are they ever fantastic!! 

Let us hope this is my last computer because I am getting far too old to go through this again. Because of having iCloud I do have some of my photographs, but only about a third. The total before it completely quit was 93,000 photographs. Not being able to import from the old machine complicates things. The total on the new machine says 39,000! Maybe I am saved from deleting because the machine did it for me? I have no idea what to think. In the meantime, I am praising God that all is not lost. That would have been a very hard pill to swallow.

Speaking of swallowing, I needed a card reader to hook up to the new machine so we stopped at a WalMart off of the highway. Girl Scouts were on the sidewalk selling their wares and Mr. Peck has never been able to pass a stand without buying. I'm sure some of you would do the same even though we already have a source for delicious mint cookies. Dollar Tree for the win baby!

He bought two boxes and because we had not eaten, dove right in. As with most things during our Information Age, I decided to investigate where GS cookies come from and did the same manufacturer make the above cookies to be found at DT for $1.25, compared with $6.00 for Girl Scout cookies. During my investigation I came across an article that circulated about a Tik-Toker who received much publicity for telling folks how good the above cookies are. I think I first found them a Big Lots, thinking at the time, why not? Turns out they are delicious and after our lunchtime taste test today, Bruce preferred the Dollar Tree house brand!! Who knew?  Well, in fact, now you do so if you purchase any, you will very much thank me for tipping you off on this, well, now, as it turns out, a not very well kept secret.

It is hard to stay down when beauty surrounds us, our children and their spouses are all good, and baby Christian is thriving. Smiling some too! Long ago we decided that if money would fix it, we should accept it graciously, even though sometimes it is not easy to do so. 

And now my dear and faithful readers, it is time to go out into the sunshine and walk; the day began really, really cold, but the brilliant sunshine is working its magic. 

your friend,

Gail

p,s, they are not made in the same factory