Some flowers from our yard

Purple lilacs

Iris

Pink rhodies

I've updated the doll blog

I've added some new pics to the doll blog and have scheduled new photos to appear for the next 5 days. Scheduling posts is a new feature that's recently been added by blogspot and is really simple to do. Visit http://letsplaydolls.blogspot.com

The Morning Walk

Each weekday morning, my friends and I take a walk along the river. We have been doing this since January, 2001. I came across a Mark Twain quote that describes our walk perfectly.

"Now, the true charm of pedestrianism does not lie in the walking, or in the scenery, but in the talking. The walking is good to time the movement of the tongue by, and to keep the blood and the brain stirred up and active; the scenery and the woodsy smells are good to bear in upon a man an unconscious and unobtrusive charm and solace to eye and soul and sense; but the supreme pleasure comes from the talk. It is no matter whether one talks wisdom or nonsense, the case is the same, the bulk of the enjoyment lies in the wagging of the gladsome jaw and the flapping of the sympathetic ear."- A Tramp Abroad

Happy Birthday

This would have been my mother's 83rd birthday. I miss her every day and cannot believe she has been gone for almost 4 years. If she were still alive, we would be talking politics, politics, politics. She would love all that is going on with both the D's and R's, as she referred to them. I'm sure the price of gas now would be appalling to her, also the increased cost of groceries and just about everything else. We would probably be on another diet together, comparing weight loss and recipes. I'm sure she would still like to shop, she was one of the best shoppers ever! We used to say if it had a plug she needed it for her kitchen. When buying clothes, she always bought the brightest colors and she wore them well. She would be so proud of the family, the grandsons(our 3 Marines) who served in Iraq, Africa, and now Afghanistan. The family has grown and there is another great-granddaughter(Emerald)and a new granddaughter(Janet)by marriage. We wish they could have known her and what a wonderful person she was. I wish she could see the rhodies and the lilacs in bloom this May, they are so lovely. This was her favorite time of year. At some future unkown date, we will all see her again. What a wonderful reunion it will be!

It's Sunday, guess what I'm doing today...

I'm teaching the 7 year olds in Primary. Our lesson today is about prayer. We will have stories, songs, reading from Luke 1:5-17, role playing, and coloring. I love Primary! I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers, maybe not in the way we wanted, but he is aware of exactly what we need.

I looked out the window and what else did I see?

A flock of cedar waxwings eating the holly berries on our big holly tree.. They've been here all week and almost all of the berries are gone now. I think the birds have come later this year, in the past, they have arrived in March or April.

Pumpkin seeds

Monday I put the six giant pumpkin seeds between two pieces of paper towels to sprout them. On Tuesday I put them in 4" pots to grow into tiny plants. Larry is letting me use his garden spot and he is going to plant in the square foot garden. Can we grow a 500 pound pumpkin? Time will tell.

Of flowers and poetry

Spring is my favorite time of year. I especially love lilacs. The white lilacs in these pictures are from Larry's grandmother's house in Idaho. When she moved here, she brought them with her and planted them at Larry's parents' house. These are decendents of those bushes and are growing in our backyard. I love poetry, too, and I thought these lilacs would go well with part of Walt Whitman's poem, read below.

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed...

In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash'd palings,

Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,

With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,

With every leaf a miracle--and from this bush in the dooryard,

With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,

A sprig with its flower I break.

Clivia

Clivia is a genus of monocot flowering plants native to southern Africa. They are from the family Amaryllidaceae. Common name is Bush lily.
They are a non-woody evergreen plant, with dark green, strap-like leaves. These leaves produce clusters of bell-shaped flowers on a stalk above the foliage. The flowers somewhat resemble those of certain varieties of Lilium or Amaryllis. Orange is the most common colour but there are also Peach, Near White, Apricot, Red and Yellow varieties.
Specimens were gathered by British explorers William Burchell and John Bowie in 1815 and 1820, respectively. Clivia nobilis became the first named species when in 1828 the Kew botanist John Lindley named it in honor of Lady Charlotte Florentia Clive, Duchess of Northumberland (1787-1866)., who was for a time the governess of the future Queen Victoria.

(taken from Wikipedia)

My clivia plant is blooming now. In the 18+ years that I have had this plant, it has only bloomed a few times. I have found that fertilizing it with African violet fertilizer starting in March gets it to bloom sometimes.

I looked out the window and what did I see?

A coyote with a squirrel in his mouth running across our front yard!