Tag Archives: spring

Azaleas, Rhododendrons, and Baby Blueberries!

Azaleas, Rhododendrons, and Baby Blueberries!

IMG_2331How I love this time of year! I have a trip I dream of for this time of year. Relatives in Florida say the oranges come in, and the azaleas bloom there in February. The trip begins in Florida in February, I follow the flowers up the coast, and wind up here at home in April.

I was in Boone, NC, earlier this week. On the mountainsides, dogwoods and redbuds were blooming. When my flowers are finishing their spring show, I can go 20 miles up the mountain and extend the season! I’ve just expanded my dream trip!

Speaking of which, why not be in Florida when those February fruits are flowering? We stayed in Kissimmee one time in a hotel next to an orange grove. Whatever variety was growing in that grove was in full bloom. I remember thinking, Heaven will smell like this! (and a baby’s head, but that’s another post!) I’ll have to research when the oranges bloom and start my trip then, someday, when the grandkids are bigger and I can bear to stay away from them more than a week. (As long as it’s a dream trip, I believe I’ll just take them with me!)

For now, I’ll just enjoy the here and now:

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IMG_2344I’ll end with this photo of baby blueberries since they are a promise of things to come!

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!

I’ve said it before, but I think I like spring better than Christmas because the trees decorate themselves!redbud 2015This is what the redbud and dogwoods are up to in my yard this year!

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The bushes, and even the ground, get decorated !

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My creeping phlox is up, pink flowering strawberry is in the hole, and…

pink flowering strawberry 2015

Azaleas are on deck! Really! They should be blooming later this week, and I will be photographing them, then!

 

Celebrating For Cynthia!

Celebrating For Cynthia!

IMG_2182When I posted this necklace on Facebook, an old college buddy identified it as, “For Cynthia,” what her brother-in-law thought it was called. I’m still smiling. Of course I had to ask my daughter’s mother-in-law, (I call her my sister-in-law. We share grandchildren, after-all!) Cynthia, what she thought. She said that’s what she thought it was called when she was a little girl, and it still made her smile!

Good old forsythia, or “yellow bells” as it’s called here in Western NC, is one of my favorite harbingers of spring!IMG_2154

Inspiration was two-fold. The flower was first, of course,  and the second was a cherry blossom kit I’d purchased form Elizabeth Girod at Fire and Fibers: http://fireandfibers.com/item_2578/Cherry-Blossom-Necklace-Kit–Pink-Flowers-Tree-Branch-Spring-Antique-Brass-Picasso-Czech-Glass.htm

When I saw Elizabeth at the Intergalactic Bead Show in Charlotte a week ago, I bought one of her branches and told her about my idea. I had tiny yellow flower beads I had purchased several years ago from Bead Lush, a shop also in Charlotte, NC. The green leaf beads I found at Joann’s recently. I used 26 gauge brass wire to secure the beads to the stem.

Even though, I’m not a “yellow girl,” I think I have to keep this one for myself!IMG_2174

When I wear it, I can celebrate, “For Cynthia!”

Well, Looky Here!

Well, Looky Here!

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and it brought along a friend!

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I think crocus are the perfect Easter flower! I love how they pop right out of the dead and the brown and the gray! That top photo should make a good image for my glass gems. Not bad for an IPhone 5 camera (I’m so ashamed, I don’t have the 6.)

I’m also curious. Saffron, a very expensive spice, is simply the dried stamens of crocus. Every year, I say I’ll save some and don’t. Maybe this year!

Speaking of Spring!

Speaking of Spring!

Once upon a time, I don’t know how long ago, I found, and I don’t remember where, some beads that reminded me of Easter eggs and jelly beans. So, I made a bracelet:Easter bracelet

 

I think the beads are dyed agate. They are simply strung on clear stretchy cord, and the knot secured with clear nail polish.

I dug it out, yesterday, and wore it with an aqua top. I wasn’t going anywhere special, just to pick up groceries and a pizza, but it just made me happy to wear it!