The bright side

 Happy Easter!

 Here's some good advice for us all on this holiday morning.

Scotch Eggs and Jellybeans

Happy Easter! I made Scotch eggs for part of our lunch today. This was my second attempt (ever) and they turned out great! I used panko crumbs for the breading and the exteriors have a nice crunch. With a couple of good quality mustards, they were a real treat!

And there was candy for dessert...

Rabbits, bluebirds, butterflies..

Now that April's here, we're seeing so many animals starting to emerge from their winter hideaways. 

I spotted a rabbit the other night in the circle of light shining from our neighbor's front porch.

A pair of bluebirds have claimed the nest box and are busy from sunrise to sunset, flying back and forth to raise the year's first brood. I'd love to peek inside, but dare not lest I upset the parents.

 Another pair of birds, Carolina Wrens, have made a nest inside an old BBQ grill that we were getting ready to throw away. A small hole had rusted through the bottom, and we noticed the male and female going in and out through it. You can hear the babies squeaking and peeping inside if you listen carefully! What a creative spot to pick for a nest; I'm glad we didn't hurry to get rid of the old grill when it was no longer serviceable. Turns out it had plenty of service left in it--wren sanctuary.

Last week the first hummingbird appeared by our back porch. I hurried to clean the feeder and make some fresh sugar water, and now a pair of ruby-throats are constantly around, sucking up the fresh nectar.

The first butterflies of the year have shown up. It seems early, but they're here. I saw a couple of beautiful swallowtails yesterday.

Today hasn't been great for animal spotting, because it's turned chilly again with lots of rain. The woodpeckers have been turning up at the suet feeder, though. Not much deters them, plus the feeder's hanging under an eave of porch and that keeps some of the rain off while they're up there. It's fun to watch them from the dining room window.

That's all I've got for today. Oh, and I'm on spring break! I've been off since yesterday and I don't go back to work until the 17th. I'm so happy for the time off, I can't even tell you how much. Once we get back to school there's only five weeks left in this year; the end is finally in sight. 

A very happy Easter to you all!

Spring Break

It's been an eventful week.  We brought Poppy home last Wednesday night, just as my spring break was starting, and that proved to be good planning. I can't imagine dealing with the first few days of a new puppy in the house while going to work! I still have the rest of this week off, and things are already settling down a little bit. 

Poppy is a real delight so far. She's super smart, sweet, and incredibly playful. Having never gotten a dog this young, this is all new to me. Also, I need to give my George a big shout-out. He's been incredibly patient with the puppy. She follows him around, dives on him, brings him toys to try to entice him to play, and he usually just lets out a heavy sigh and ignores her. Every now and then, when she jumps on him once too often and attempts to bite at his ears with her needle-sharp puppy teeth, he issues a quick but stern correction. Ginger used to do the same thing to him when he went too far! In fact, Ginger helped us raise him, and now it looks like George will do the same thing with Poppy. He already seems to accept the fact that she's going to be living with us now. What a good boy!

Puppies are tiresome.

We had a pretty good Easter. I cooked a ham, deviled eggs, rice served with glazed ham drippings, green beans, and fresh salad (lettuce and radishes) from my garden. I picked enough salad from the raised bed that I was able to share two big ziplock bags full with Ms. Luella next door. I can't wait to harvest some carrots--they're not quite ready yet.

Did I mention that I'm growing some potatoes in a large container as an experiment? It's the method of growing potatoes where you slowly add layers of soil around the plant as it  grows until you reach the top of the container. (You start off with a thin layer of soil in the bottom). Here's what my potato bush looks like as of this morning.

The only other thing of note going on this week is that my seasonal allergies have gotten so bad that my asthma has been kicking in. I had two or three nights of wheezing and getting short of breath despite using an inhaler, and I haven't been sleeping well. Yesterday I decided that if I had another restless night I'd call the doctor and go see her today. I feel a little better, though, and slept fairly well last night. I'm hoping a trip to see the doctor can still be avoided. 

All in all, it's been a wonderful spring break so far! A new puppy, a thriving garden, sunshine and nice weather--even the crabapple stick tree we planted in the front yard has put out its first tiny leaf buds! The chickadees nesting out back obviously have babies right now, given how often they're flying in and out of the nestbox. And on Easter Sunday I saw the first hummingbird of the year--about 15 minutes after I hung the feeder up for the first time!

It's a really nice time of the year to have a vacation. 

Easter weekend photos

 I took a few pictures the other night when my friends came over for our little belated birthday/vaccination party. 

First, the table with my china rabbits, the birthday cake, and the punchbowl full of Sparkling Strawberry Margarita punch.

Did I mention that Marla, Martina, and I made plans to dye Easter eggs? We thought it would be a fun activity for the day before Easter. They both brought over a dozen boiled eggs (I'd prepared my own dozen the night before) and I supplied the cups of dye. We really had fun with this! Martina said she hadn't dyed Easter eggs since she was a kid. Marla planned to go home afterwards and dye more with little Carsen, since she's finally old enough to appreciate the activity.

Speaking of Carsen....she's just as fascinated with the big aquarium as she's been since infancy. She spent the whole 30 minutes or so she was at our house looking into it.

Except, of course, when the two toddlers were finally reunited!

Buddies.

It was certainly good to see my friends again, but I must admit it felt a little awkward at times. There would be sudden silences when no one could seem to think of anything to say next. Halfway through the party, I had to go sit on the porch by myself for five minutes or so. I was feeling a tiny bit overwhelmed. (Marla and Martina were inside having a spirited conversation about something so I don't think they noticed). They both went home a little earlier than normal, and I think we were all tired. Everyone acknowledged that we've gotten out of the habit of socializing in person and it just feels a bit strange. Who knows how long it will take before seeing friends will feel normal and comfortable again? Still, we had a good time and hopefully this is the start of more ordinary life again!

My neighbor Luella is back in the hospital. I woke up early Easter morning to the sight of an ambulance taking her away and we've been really worried about her. Today I texted her just on the off chance she or her daughter might see it and respond and let us know how things were going. Well, Miss Luella herself texted me back! She says she's very weak and will be in the hospital for a few days, but despite all that she seems to be in good spirits. I texted her back and told her how pretty her yard looks today, and she asked if I could snap some pictures and send them to her. Could I?!

The 50+ year old magnolia that had all the gorgeous pink flowers this spring now has the nicest green leafy shade.

She was so happy to get these photos! I told her to hurry up and get well and come back, her little house misses her! :) 

I hope you all had a nice Easter (if you celebrate it) or a nice spring weekend!

Happy Easter! Have a smile.

Happy Easter everyone! I was feeling pretty depressed yesterday, so I'm trying hard to have a better day today. I bought a ham last week that I'm going to be baking, and I'm planning to make deviled eggs and biscuits to go with it. On Friday I went to the strawberry farm and got a beautiful basket of berries and I think I'll bake a cake, too. If only we could have friends over to share our feast with......but enough of that. I realize we're lucky. And in case you're feeling down on this Easter Sunday, too, here's a few funny/cute memes I found to share.

Have a nice day, everyone.





This next one's for Dr. Spo:



And finally, some pretty art from my favorite greeting card artist, Marjolein Bastin:

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to all of my blog friends out there! I hope everyone is enjoying the arrival of spring and all the wonderful things that go along with it.

I'll be cooking a big meal tomorrow, even though it's just the two of us. Hams were on sale at the grocery store this week, so I'm cooking a small one. It's going to have the Coca-Cola/brown sugar glaze I used on the Christmas ham. I'll also be cooking fresh little red new potatoes and green beans purchased at the market yesterday, and there will be deviled eggs, as always. (It's not Easter without deviled eggs). Speaking of eggs....

I'm finally going to attempt to make Scotch Eggs! Are you reading this, John Gray?! I've never had one, and no one around here has ever heard of them, so I had to find a recipe online. I'm quite excited to see how they turn out. Photos and a recipe review will be forthcoming early next week!

To finish off our holiday meal, I picked up some of the first local strawberries and a coconut cake from the bakery down the road. Perfect festive spring desserts!

The best part of Easter, for me, will be spending time with my husband. Our days off don't align very often, and it's going to be nice to spend the holiday hanging out together.

Wishing everyone a joyous day!

Happy weekend

Today is the start of a four day weekend for me, and I couldn't be happier! Tomorrow is my birthday, so the next few days will be filled with small celebrations and fun. My husband is off today and tomorrow with me, so we will get some time together. I'm not sure what he may have planned. At some point I'll be going shopping for my own gift--I'm in serious need of some new work clothes and of course only I can buy those. And on Sunday a couple of friends are coming over to have drinks and eat cake with me. We're also going to dye Easter eggs!

Lest anyone thinks that's too weird, let me explain. Several years ago I picked up some cheap egg decorating kits at the grocery store on impulse. I thought a bowl of dyed eggs would look pretty on the table as a centerpiece since it was almost Easter. On the night when I had boiled up a dozen eggs and was preparing to begin, some friends dropped by. Well, we ended up having drinks and decorating eggs and we had a BLAST. None of us had done it since we were kids, and the alcohol only added to the fun. Everyone ended up with some cool looking eggs to take home (and rainbow stained fingers) and we ended up talking about what fun it was for years. Since Easter is coming up next week I thought it would be fun to do it again. So we'll be having drinks, finger food, birthday cake, and craft time!

Speaking of birthday cake, I've been trying to figure out what kind to have. I've been doing without sugar (as part of my new year's "get healthier" resolution) for over a month now, so I'm super excited. I'm torn between chocolate layer cake, and carrot cake with cream cheese icing. It feels like a big decision when I've not had any dessert (other than fruit) for weeks on end!

Friends, family, new clothes, cake, crafty stuff, and time off....it's going to be a great weekend!

March already!

March came in quietly this year, with gray skies and cold rain that doesn't look much different than the whole of February. Spring doesn't seem to be in any hurry. Aside from a few stray daffodils, nothing is blooming yet, not even the flowering trees that are usually very early. I keep waiting for everything to pop!

This is my favorite month of the whole year. It's my birthday month, so I feel very aligned with the energy of March. St. Patrick's Day is coming up (hence the blog makeover with all the GREEN!) and Easter falls on the 31st. March is all about daffodils and shamrocks, dyed eggs and Easter candy, mad hares and Dr. Seuss.

In honor of my favorite month, I'll spend the next three weeks celebrating everything March here on the blog. Stay tuned!

Ginger looking for a 4-leaf clover.

My lucky egg

This is the egg I found in the little wooded lot in the churchyard near our house. Gregg and I were walking Ginger through there, and I looked down and it was nestled in the pine straw, waiting for us. It had candy inside.

Sweet!

Happy Easter and a joyful Spring!

We are having such a beautiful spring. Everything is vivid green with bursts of color....deep blue sky, pink and red azaleas, purple iris and clematis, potted plants of every kind appearing on doorsteps and porches. The weather has been wonderful. Warm, plenty of rain, plenty of sun, and longer and longer days to enjoy.

We've set up the hammock. Nothing is better than decompressing in it after work, sipping something cold and reading a good book(or watching the birdfeeders). The local strawberries are especially delicious and juicy right now, so the first daiquiri of the season is waiting beside the hammock this afternoon, with a book of garden writings and a pillow to make everything cozy and comfortable.

I've boiled some organic brown eggs this afternoon, and tonight I plan to dye them pretty colors to celebrate the holiday. I will of course post pictures of the eggs when they are done. Yesterday, when Gregg and I were out walking Ginger, we took a shortcut through a wooded lot behind a church. Underneath a very large pine tree,  I found a plastic Easter egg filled with candy! It seemed like a special omen of good surpises to come.

I hope everyone has a happy Easter and a most joyous Spring, filled with lots of nice little surprises!