Friday, April 24, 2009

Busy Busy Busy

Birthday Surprise! (More like shock!)

It's been well over a month since I last posted...I can't believe how time is flying this spring! I really truly don't know how all you "daily" bloggers do it! I really appreciate all the time and effort that goes into daily blogging. I thought I'd just do a quick catch-up.

Fire Just a little too close to home!
I will start with my birthday , which was March 24. This picture is what I came home from work to! This is the field behind our house. I became concerned because a few days earlier, my husband was burning some brush and it just about got away from him. He happened to be off the day of my birthday and while I was driving home from work, I could see all this smoke from the county above ours (which was probably a good 10-12 minutes from home). I thought to myself....that looks like it could be coming from our house! My next thought was, "What did he do!" As I got closer and closer I KNEW that it was coming from our house. While I was driving down the road, I could see waist-high flames and the wind had really picked up. The field was black as far back as you could see. When I got to the house, I was somewhat confused. There were people outside at my neighbor's house (1/4 mile from us) and there were people walking back toward the fire. But my husband was inside the house. Then I thought, "Oh my, he started this fire and went inside and doesn't have a clue what's going on!" When I got inside I hollered out, "Please tell me you didn't do this!" He said, "Do what?" I just knew he was in big trouble. Then he started laughing and said our neighbor came over that morning and told him he was going to burn the field. Of course, the wind had picked up and it burned a whole lot more than he anticipated! Pretty soon, someone from the fire department came pulling into our drive. He said that this burn had been called in (meaning, that our neighbor had called the fire department to inform them that he was doing this), but since the wind had picked up and they had received numerous phone calls, he thought they had better come keep an eye on it. Fortunately, it stayed in the field. All the weeds have been burned out (Farmers do this occasionally) and all is well.

Spring is finally beginning to arrive!

We had a couple of beautiful, somewhat warm days (mid-60s) and my magnolia tree was just beautiful. I took these pictures just before it got cold and snowed again. I knew that this tree would turn a yucky brown, but it actually held up well through the freeze! I haven't been so luck in years past!













My forsythia is just beginning to bloom. This is only the second year for it. Years ago, when I worked in the flower shop, we used to force these in the spring and use in arrangements. I always loved them, but never had one of my own. A couple of years ago, I saw on on clearance and decided to plant one. It hasn't gotten big enough yet for me to feel that I can pluck branches from it to force. I'm thinking about underplanting it with muscari (grape hyacinths) which bloom at the same time. Maybe I'll get around to doing this sometime this fall.















Better get busy, time is running out!
My son is graduating in just a few weeks...this is a pile of newspaper clippings from just this year! I want to get them all into a scrapbook for him, but what a mess! I have been cutting out articles from our weekly newspaper and some from the Richmond newspaper all through football season, wrestling season, some academic and awards. I would just cut them out and put them loosely in his book, thinking I would sit down one day and just get them done. Well, crunch time is upon us and I decided to get a little organized.


























They are finally into manageable piles now. Ran out of time on this day, but at least they are grouped by subject now. The bad news is, track season has started......which means more articles...
Nothing like a deadline to get it done! I will probably be finishing up around midnight the night before his graduation party....good thing I work well under pressure!

More Spring wreaths!
My friend called to say she had purchased some flowers for a new spring wreath and wanted me to put it together for her. Funny how friends think alike sometimes. I had recently purchased some flowers for my new spring wreath....amazing how we picked out almost the exactly same colors and flowers! Of course, they look different (at least to me)--sorry for the sideways view!

This is my wreath...the colors are the same as my friend's, yet somewhat different.
Here is a close-up of the hydrangeas and dogwood...
Close--up of the cabbage roses...aren't they gorgeous? They're a pale, pale yellow. I just fell in love with them!
When I was selecting my flowers, I came across these dogwood and thought they would be just the perfect touch. The problem was, they were way too white. Then, I remembered I had some Design Master spray "Just for Flowers" in spring green left over from a wedding. This is the coolest spray ever. You spray it and it doesn't cover up all the other colors! See, the red edges still show. It just turned the white dogwood into a "natural" green. It turned out perfectly!
Well, I just finished up making oatmeal butterscotch cookies and blueberry muffins to give to the track team at our big invitational meet tomorrow in Ohio. It is supposed to be 80 degrees....our first warm weekend this year and boy, are we excited! I'll have to remember the sunscreen so we don't get fried!
I'll see you all soon....hopefully it won't be more than a month this time!
Take care,
Kelly

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