Spring Glorious Spring!

I know I have more to catch up on, but this gets the easy part out of the way. Here is the last picture I took of the Linden tree's buds opening up (taken on May 4...I was on vacation for a week and can't find the picture I took right before leaving)



These are some shot that I took during lunch on my first day back at work, though admitedly 2 of these were taken while I was driving back from buying lunch. The car was mostly stopped each time. It was a stop, shoot, and drive kind of thing. I wish I could have stopped to get lower on the ground for the dandelions meet the fire hydrant one, but this was the best I could get.

Coming Soon...

I have a lot to catch up on again but it will have to wait a little longer because I have a cat taking a nap on my stomache right now. He keeps licking and grabbing my fingers as I type over his back. I'm only letting him because he was pretty good last night finally!

Stories and pictures coming soon...

...a road trip to California with my sister from Arizona

...family surprising me for the weekend to celebrate me turning 30 and my dad's birthday

...the final pictures of the buds coming out & other spring shots

...recipe for homemade muesli

Hopefully I'll get it done this weekend!

Catching Up

I feel like I'm getting bored with these Linden buds, maybe it's like watching a pot of water....waiting for it to boil. It's probably just impatience. So I'll "spice" it up with a few other pics from the last few days. I'll even toss in a recipe (bringing food into the picture is always a good idea in my opinion!).

Here's how the little buds looked on Thursday morning:

This is how they looked on Friday morning: (not much different...)

...and because it reached 84 degrees on Friday, here is how they looked when I left work. They looked a little longer, but again.....hard to tell. I'm hoping they have changed a lot by Monday. Otherwise, they'll definitely have changed by the time I see them again - which will be a week from Monday!

Now onto other things. You still here? Did you get bored??? Can't guarantee this won't bore you either, but hey, it's something different, okay? (I have that feeling that I'm talking to myself...which I probably am...and I'm typing way too many ............)

So I took some spring flowers home from work last night and planted them in my planter on our concrete 10x10 patio. The poor planter still had last year's dead annual remains in it, so it feels good to see color and life again outside. I planted cute little Tete 'a Tete daffodils, a purple stock, some blue violas, primrose pansies, an ivy, and stuck some pussy willow cuttings in the middle. I love spring! :)

And now for the food... (yep, more dots)

I found a recipe for homemade pizza sauce that we have fallen in love with when combined with slices of french bread topped with the sauce, a couple slices of pepperoni, grated mozzerella cheese, slices of fresh tomato, and garlic & herb seasoning sprinkled on top. We cook ours on a tinfoil-lined baking sheet in the toaster oven at 350 for about ten minutes, and the most delicious treat comes out for dinner....yeah, a "treat" for dinner! It's so good that we had it on both Thursday AND Friday for dinner. Yummy! (We might have eaten more, but we ran out of tomatoes and they really are best with the little red slices of heaven!)

Here are the pics. Oh, and the left over sauce that we didn't use (since there's just 2 of us) goes into a mini muffin tin lined with plastic wrap in the freezer and then they are popped out and put in a ziploc bag and back into the freezer. They're really quick to thaw in the microwave for the next pizza craving. Let me know if you try them and like them!

(1) 16 oz can of tomato sauce

(1) 6 oz can of tomato paste

(1) Tbsp ground oregano

(1 & 1/2) tsp minced garlic

(1) tsp paprika

Wednesday's Buds

Today's photo of the buds might not show that much growth since yesterday, but at least the sun was out and the sky blue. I think the detail can be seen better today. Looking close, I could see the outline of the little leaves in the buds. (It's a bit grainy in the 2nd picture because I just cropped the photo). I'm guessing they will be shooting out by Friday, since we are supposed to be at 86 degrees on Friday! I'm excited for the warmth, but please let spring stretch out as long as possible...it's my absolute favorite season!!

Swelling Buds

These are from the end of last week, but I always love watching buds swell up and open in the spring. So I will be trying to take a picture of these Linden buds every day until the leaves have come out. It's amazing how much they change every day! I love the miracle of life inside each little bud.

The first photo is from last Friday.

The second one is from yesterday. (Sorry I forgot to take the picture in the morning, so I had to adjust it so that you could see the detail in the buds.)

And this is a picture of a lonely Magnolia at my office that is showing all its glory! Isn't it beautiful with the blue sky behind it?! :)

Benny's First Post

This is our cat, Benny. We took him in for one of Jeremy's sisters about a month ago. He's a pretty good kitty, except when he's not. ;) His favorite spot is on the couch to look out the window. He loves to burrow in things - including the bed, laundry, and forts made of couch cushions. I find it interesting to look at life from the perspective of a cat. Some days it would nice to be like this...

A New Leaf

This year I am trying to spend more time using my camera. I took it to work yesterday and took some pictures throughout our gardens during lunch. (Hopefully more pics to come....)