Tag Archives: Spring

Pre-Spring storm & #50 Precious Words

Hey, everyone!  So sorry I’ve been mostly silent. I’ve been having quite a struggle with depression and tiredness and feeling overwhelmed with things going on.

Yesterday was a good day, though. In the morning my husband and I spent 1.5 hours with the man (family business) we’ve hired to build the cabinets for our new kitchen. In the afternoon he paid us a visit at our house to do final measurements and decision-making. It’s been a long complete renovation, started in summer last year, but it’s going to be so nice when completed. My husband did all the work in our remodel to this point, and has done a very fine job. Since November we’ve had our kitchen spread over, and stored in, several rooms in our house, so not an easy way to manage meals. We’re expecting that at the end of April our new cabinets will be installed, then we can get the countertop in place (a separate piece of workmanship to match our new floor – both done by our son-in-law) and have our new appliances delivered. Yes, it’s a major undertaking after 40 years of a tiny kitchen and dining area. Save and plan, plan and save.

This is exciting to me, too:

 

 

 

 

 

Today I want to show you the pretty results of a late winter/pre-spring snow storm that came upon us yesterday and last night. Apparently, many areas – including at my house – lost power and phone lines – but not here at my dad’s. The snow is very wet, so extra heavy, and as you can see in these first photos it weighed trees right down over roads. Some we could drive under but others were so low it meant driving around them and hoping to not meet vehicles coming the other way. Unfortunately, the best shots were blurred since we were moving and swerving (cautiously to get under).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next 4 are of the view out my dad’s windows at 8:00 this morning. Snow is falling off the trees in big whomps! so when out there one does not want to be under the trees!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had barely any snow left anywhere before yesterday. Winter’s last hurrah, we hope.

A final note: There is a writing challenge called #50 Precious Words in its second year and created by Vivian Kirkfield. Entry time is over now and the many brief stories are posted for your enjoyment and are being judged. One of my stories, simplified and changed, is posted near the end of the comments/stories. I expect nothing special to come from it in the form it’s in, but it’s there anyway. You can read all the stories HERE.

What’s going on in your life as we approach a new season? I’d love to hear about it.  ♥

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

 

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April showers bring mayflowers

Here it is the last full week of April and we haven’t had all that much rain — but the mayflowers are abundant near where I live. My husband came in one day with a large bouquet for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you smell their sweet fragrance?  🙂

 

 

 

These beautiful little flowers often can be found under patches of the last of winter’s snow and are one of the signs that warmer weather is taking hold.

Is there a certain flower you especially love seeing after winter?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!

Strawberries make me smile

I LOVE SPRING!  Sunshine, warm weather, birds singing, sunshine, blackflies, warm weather, flowers, sunshine, mosquitoes, strawberries, and warm weather!

thumbs_Summer-Strawberries

 

 

I’ll be posting another giveaway soon, but for this morning I’m writing a quick post as I’ve been quite busy lately and have fallen behind.  I came across the following joke which I thought you might enjoy.

Farmer Evans was driving his John Deere tractor along the road with a trailer load of fertilizer. Tim a little boy of eight was playing in his yard when he saw the farmer and asked, ‘What’ve you got in your trailer?’

‘Manure,’ Farmer Evans replied.

‘What are you going to do with it?’ asked Tim.

‘Put it on my strawberries,’ answered the farmer.

Tim replied, ‘You ought to come and eat with us.”

thumbs_Summer-Strawberries

 

 

🙂  My question to you today is what do you put on your strawberries?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

 

 

Let’s think SPRING, shall we?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had about enough of Winter. It’s time for disappearing snow, no ice, warm days, gentle breezes, birds pairing off and building nests, buds swelling on trees and flowering hedges, early flowers pushing through … oh my … yes! I want all that! How about you?

Let’s think SPRING, shall we? 

Usually Winter doesn’t get to me anymore, although I don’t like being cold; I can tolerate the season and enjoy its unique intense beauty, but this year it’s been pulling me down and sitting on me. And it’s been so constantly cold, way too snowy and icy, that I am just plain ready for Spring! Depression has weighed on me for many months; not so much that I can’t function at all, but enough that I have been low on energy and finding it hard to get and stay interested in anything. I would like to crawl into bed and stay there for … I don’t care how long. Apparently, I have a real thing … a low-grade depression that is enough to keep me in this lacklustre state of mental weariness where I’m wanting to do but lack motivation and energy to accomplish much at all. It’s exasperating, disappointing, and exhausting. I’ve lost my joie de vivre and I’m tired of being tired!

As a result of all that, just one thing that has suffered is my blog — for which I have felt twinges of guilt — and my reading and writing have been making next-to-no progress. I do apologize to you again, my dear reader, for not keeping up with posting here. I hope you will forgive my lack of enthusiasm and commitment and not quit on me.

We had a break in our weather for a few days, but now we are in the beginnings of the receiving end of a few more centimeters of snow. Do we need more? I THINK NOT! 

snow buntings on top of our hedge

This is a flurry of snow buntings, the whitest of winter birds. Do you know what they are sitting on? MY HEDGE! Yes, my hedge is under all that snow. I really am not pleased to see more snow coming down, even though it is pretty. Enough is enough, thank you.

To look ahead a little, today I have this link to share with you that I think will remind us all of the season we long to celebrate. (Or I do, anyway.) Maybe it will give you some new ideas for your gardens. Click on the red words here to see a list of flower names from A to Z. There are no images with the flower names, so we have to “Google” them to see what they look like or search in gardening books. I hope you enjoy the list, anyway.

How have you been surviving Winter? Do you have favourite flowers you can hardly wait to enjoy?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

 

 

 

Ups and downs, but Spring is here

This morning my daughter who lives in Alberta boarded the plane for back … meaning … I MISS HER ALREADY!  😦  It was a lovely visit, but, as always, too short.

flying(This photo is actually from my flight to Holland. Exquisite cloudbanks!)

As you may recall, my third daughter arrived home secretively to surprise her oldest sister on her special birthday April 19. She was home to enjoy that celebration, family Easter dinner with all of us – her first holiday meal with us in six years! – and her brother-in-law’s birthday. She and I went bargain clothing shopping for a few hours one day and her younger sister joined us, which was fun. On Wednesday I took all my girls and my grandson out to a Thai Japanese restaurant, which is when I ate sushi for the first time — and liked it! Then on Friday all my girls got an identical tattoo which they call their sisters tattoo. It’s a dainty infinity ring with four tiny doves flying up from it. Quite nice, and meaningful. My girls enjoyed their time together, and it was even harder for our ‘away’ daughter to leave this time.

There were such good things, positive things, that happened during these past nine days, things for which I am thankful. We all have concerns in our lives so I continue to pray, because often times that is the only thing a mother can do.

The newest excitement for me is that a girl friend asked me to go with her to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert in another province in May! (Steven Curtis Chapman is a Christian singer – do you know him?) It will be a day’s journey by bus, followed by the concert, an overnight stay in a hotel and then the bus trip home the next day. The drawback is Meyya and it’s during one of my weeks at Dad’s, so now I’m getting things in order so I can go on this much appreciated adventure. The Lord knows how I need this; I’m hoping everything works out.

We are now enjoying the beautiful Spring weather, although we did experience another cold dip that brought some fresh snow. I’m not sure but this one may be the smelt snow. Know about that? There’s the robin snow, the smelt snow (little fish that come up the river), and the poor man’s fertilizer snow – or some call it the farmer’s snow. Whatever it is, it doesn’t stay long. Our mornings are much warmer than they have been when I take Meyya out early, and I get to enjoy the birds singing with such glorious abandon. Love it!

What do you love about Spring? What positives has Spring brought to you?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

 

SPRING has sprung!

  Today is officially

A week ago our daughter and our young grandson were across the road flying kites, since it’s a great place for that with the wide open fields on a breezy day.  Our little guy was having a great time.  He hardly had to move and the kite was lifting off in the updraft.

It’s a sign of the coming Spring. Remember those days? 🙂

Here today it is a glorious 20º Celcius , which is 68º Fahrenheit – and it actually got a little warmer than that where my house is located.  We are having an early Spring in Nova Scotia! Hopefully the temperatures will not change back until late Autumn as the buds are beginning to swell on trees and shrubs.

Our daughter, out west in Alberta, says it’s not spring there! At -17º C, (which is 54.6 F if I did the math correctly) all she had to say about it was …    brrr   😦   phhht! 

So —  to anyone, like my daughter, who is still dreaming of warmer weather … I hope it happens soon for you.

In the meantime —

I love Spring! It means that Summer is next and … I love Summer! 🙂

 HAPPY SPRING, everyone!

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

Did I say Spring? Welcome to Nova Scotia in March

I wasn’t going to write a post today, but something happened that is worth sharing. Something cold, white, and wintry.

Yes, I know that I said Spring was in sight. You can read my post here. The little snow we had was disappearing, then it rained, followed by warming temperatures, then … look at what happened during last night …

Yes, MORE snow! I have a ‘great’ young friend who would absolutely love this. 🙂 It is heavy wet snow, ideal for making snowballs and building snowmen.

For little dogs, on the other hand, it’s not so fun when it comes right up under the belly.

This is Sammy. I didn’t get a photo of him when he first went out, before the snow was cleared a little. He’s so short that he pushed snow. He didn’t leave tracks in the snow, he body-pushed his way through it so that he left one long trail. Funny little guy! 🙂 But he does love to try to run in it.

And then the birds needed some help …

so I refilled their feeders and put out a new ‘birdseed cake’ for them.

Tonight the snow is starting to settle, and it’s turning slippery as it is getting cooler. In a couple of days we will get warmer weather again. Yes, Spring is coming a little at a time.

Winter is so beautiful, but I am a warm-weather person.

How about you, which season do you prefer?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂